R&R’s Lambert is named northern entrepreneur of year

ICE cream entrepreneur James Lambert made it a triple scoop last night after being named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the North of England.
James LambertJames Lambert
James Lambert

The accolade comes after the executive chairman of R&R Ice Cream was awarded an OBE for services to manufacturing in the Queen’s birthday honours list earlier this month.

The Yorkshire Post presented the Individual Award to Mr Lambert at the Excellence in Business Awards at the end of last year.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Yorkshireman, who started his career as a salesman for a cattle-breeding company, has now picked up three major awards in less than a year.

Accountancy firm Ernst & Young praised Mr Lambert for the “amazing journey” of Northallerton-based R&R.

The private equity-backed business has grown to become Europe’s largest own label ice cream manufacturer with sales of nearly £700m.

Stuart Watson, a partner at Ernst & Young, said: “Mr Lambert has taken R&R from a start-up to a pan-European business. The story here is one of growth, growth, growth.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“There are ambitious plans afoot for R&R, with future international expansion plans beyond Europe, and the continuing launch of new products.”

Judges said Mr Lambert has a bold vision with an appetite for detail. “He has grown the business phenomenally, developing new and existing brands,” they added.

Other Yorkshire winners at the Manchester ceremony included Stuart Paver, managing director of Pavers Shoes, who took the retail award home to York.

Judges highlighted the family-owned company’s international expansion and its rapidly growing Indian arm, which has the potential to the largest part of the business.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Paul Stoneham, chief executive of Leeds-based haircare brand Ghd, won the turnaround award for investing in research and development, talent and marketing.

Judges described him as an “incredibly polished and extremely competent” individual.

Other winners were Tom Drury and Zachery Lewy of Manchester’s Arrow Global, Keith Rimmer of Warrington’s Belfry Group, Geoffrey Thompson of South Shields’ Utilitywise, Steve Parkin of Cramlington’s Mayborn Group, Richard Law of Chester’s GB Group, Rizwan Khan of Cheadle’s Advanced Childcare, Graeme Oram of Thornaby’s The Five Lamps Organisation and Majid Hussain of Blackburn’s Accrol Papers.

All winners will go on to represent the region at the UK finals in October and a chance to compete in the international finals in Monaco next year.

Related topics: