Excellence in Business Awards 2010: Crisp response for the firm savouring taste of success

The Bradford-based firm, winner in the 10m-50m turnover category, has made a habit of competing with the big boys.

In a fiercely competitive sector, the 65-year-old family firm is recognised as the UK's fastest-growing crisp brand.

Led by chief executive and chairman, Ken Brook-Chrispin, the firm has grown profits and sales consistently over the past three years.

In the year to the end of September 2007, sales hit 13m but it made a (1.2m) operating loss. By the end of September 2009, sales were up to 24m and operating profits hit 2m.

The group sees further growth this year, and expects sales to top 30m over the next 12 months. Despite the tough market, Seabrook said sales are at record levels and volumes are up 77 per cent year-on-year.

"Three years ago, we would have been around 10m (in sales)," said Mr Brook-Chrispin. "We're now pushing the 50m mark.

"It's absolutely magic to be recognised. Even though we're a small company, we're the fastest-growing (crisp maker) in the UK. It's nice that somebody has recognised us and put us above all the ones that normally get the awards."

The first Seabrook crisps appeared in 1946, cooked in a device that resembled a large frying pan. Founder Colin Brook started supplying local pubs, at a time when crisps were still considered a faintly exotic accompaniment for a pint. He bought the old Liberal Club in Allerton, near Bradford, in 1958, which served as its manufacturing base for 45 years.

In 2003, the company moved its manufacturing base to Duncombe Street in Bradford.

Since then, it has continued to modernise. At the heart of this has been innovation – its crisps are now available in 14 core flavours, with four spicy flavours added this year, and more new product launches planned this year and next.

An innovation team continually looks at new product opportunities and technology. This has taken it on trips to Ireland, the US and Turkey, and fed through to higher volumes and a more streamlined factory.

Seabrook is seizing more of the market, not only in Yorkshire, but also in the South, Midlands, Lancashire, Scotland and the North-East.

Its market share now stands at 5.3 per cent, thanks to winning 5,500 new national stockists over the past 18 months.

Earlier this year, Seabrook sealed a deal to supply Tesco Express, the fast-growing convenience chain. Aimed at time-poor consumers who want to pick up a quick snack, the listing opens up a lucrative segment of the market.

"We're seeing massive growth (outside Yorkshire)," said Mr Brook-Chrispin. "In London, we're up about 140 per cent. We're starting from a low base but it's still great to see."

The company continues to bolster its team, and earlier this year the group appointed a new finance director, Colin Taverner, from fellow Yorkshire firm Mamas & Papas, where he was associate FD.

Seabrook's sales team has grown from five to 18 over the past year-and-a-half, and it has been careful to recruit staff within the fast-moving consumer goods industry.

The chemistry is right as company is natural winner

Croda International Plc

Companies with turnover above 50m

NATURAL chemicals company Croda walked away with the award for Best company with a turnover above 50m.

Despite the fact that 95 per cent of its sales are outside the UK, the group says its corporate DNA is in Yorkshire and it hopes to keep it that way.

"We are delighted to have won this award," said Croda's chief executive Mike Humphrey. "We are a global company, but our roots are firmly in Yorkshire."

Croda was founded in 1925 to make lanolin from wool grease, a natural by-product of the wool industry.

More than 80 years on, virtually every cosmetic and toiletry company in the world uses Croda's products.

Wherever possible, Croda uses renewable natural raw materials, such as wool grease, rape seed oil, coconut oil and a whole variety of plants.

It estimates that over 70 per cent of its raw materials now come from renewable sources.

The company has enjoyed 10 years of unbroken profit growth and increased dividends in spite of operating through two recessions. It now has a market capitalisation of over 1.4bn, up from just 300m

10 years ago.

In the first six months of 2010, Croda saw a doubling in profits thanks to strong demand for everyday essentials such as deodorants and shampoo.

The East Yorkshire company specialises in natural chemicals for anti-wrinkle creams and other skin care products.

The company has managed to avoid the recession as consumers continue to splash out on top-of-the-range beauty and skincare products.

Croda, based in Snaith, near Goole, supplies ingredients to skin care and cosmetics companies such as L'Oreal, Chanel, Clarins, Este Lauder, Boots and Procter and Gamble. Croda's ingredients represent a very small proportion of the final selling price of a personal care product. But these ingredients are frequently the reason the product has an effect and the reason it sells. The company has increasingly moved away from commodity chemicals to focus on innovative, higher-margin ingredients used in sun-tan lotions and haircare products.

Chief executive Mike Humphrey believes it is vital that the company continues to invest despite the economic downturn.

"In times of recession, people stop thinking about the future, but you don't want to come out of recession and find you haven't got a future," he said.

"If we stop investing now then in two to three years' time we will be in trouble. Too many companies are taking a short-term view."

Croda launches more than a hundred new products every year. It patented "penta peptides" for wrinkle treatment in the early 2000s and now they are sold worldwide. The company has already developed the next generation of product and it is working on its successor. The group's global annual voluntary staff turnover is less than five per cent.

Engineering business looks to take the next step forward

Evenort Ltd

Companies with turnover up to 10m

Greg Wright

Deputy Business Editor

EVENORT, which triumphed in the companies with turnover up to 10m category in the Excellence in Business Awards, is an engineering firm which competes with the world's best.

Evenort's diverse range of services include raw material processing, the manufacture and distribution of stainless steel and nickel alloy flanges.

It's also involved in the advanced manufacturing of high-integrity parts for the oil and gas sector and plasma cutting.

The company, which is based in Dinnington, South Yorkshire, also acts as an agent for Hilton Metal Forgings, a listed Indian forging business established by Evenort's managing director Joe McKay.

In a recent interview, his son Craig McKay, Evenort's general manager, told the Yorkshire Post about the company's plans for the future.

He said: "We have a 1m project we have put together for some grant funding, which we hope to roll out over the next four or five years.

"It will be the next stage in the development of our company which will take us to a 5m-6m turnover as opposed to 4m where we have been for the last couple of years."

In recent months, an engineer, who came via a knowledge transfer partnership with Sheffield Hallam University, has been working on factory layout plans incorporating the new investment.

The company plans to upgrade machinery across its five product ranges and hopes to consolidate two sites into its Dinnington base to increase efficiencies.

Evenort, which was founded in 1982, started life trading in stainless steel raw materials and diversified into manufacturing to produce stainless steel flanges for the pipeline industry.

The manufacturing venture was successful and the company grew turnover to 2m, but Evenort struggled in the recession of the early 1990s.

Joe McKay decided to open a business in India and formed Hilton Metal Forgings, which floated on the Mumbai stock exchange in 2007.

Evenort acts as UK agent for the company's steel and Mr McKay remains on the board of directors. Evenort now has five main product areas and around 40 employees.

It is jointly owned by Joe McKay, his wife, who works at the company, and their two sons Glen, the sales director, and Craig. Craig's wife Karen also works at the company.

Asked if UK manufacturing has a future, Craig McKay said recently: "Absolutely. There are companies in the UK that are flourishing.

"There is definitely a demand for high-integrity goods and there is a real spirit of innovation in Sheffield and South Yorkshire. There are programmes in place to foster that innovation and drive it forward, like the knowledge-transfer partnership with the universities.

"If you have an idea, it can sometimes be incredibly difficult to turn that idea into a working model or finally produce something you can actually sell. To have programmes like the knowledge-transfer partnership, where you can spec out your ideas and have qualified engineers research the integrity and the feasibility, is definitely helpful. If you look at companies like Gripple, AES and Davy Markham, of course there is a future for manufacturing in the UK. It's a future of innovation, not only in the products you produce but in the way you produce them."

Glen McKay, the sales director at Evenort, said after receiving the award: "The customer will always be king for Evenort. We look after our employees and we respect them. They look after us in return."