Wax lyrical

A HOME fragrance company which pulled itself back from the brink of administration has been shortlisted in the Business of the Year category.

Wax Lyrical was taken over in 2007 and has gone from strength to strength.

The Lindal-in-Furness firm manufactures candles, reed diffusers, room sprays and home fragrance accessories at its London Road base.

Its 130 staff have won major new customers this year, including Sainsburys, Boots and Asda, and continued to supply established clients Tesco, Waitrose and B&Q.

Their efforts - directed by Mike Armstead and his three co-owners - helped turn the firm’s previous £5m loss into clear year-on-year growth.

The company retails its own brand of Wax Lyrical products, as well as licensed ranges for partners such as Jelly Belly and the Royal Horticultural Society.

It now exports 45 per cent of its products to more than 40 countries. Its sales outlets include an online platform at www.wax-lyrical.com and stores at Lindal, in Cumbria; The Lowry, in Manchester; and Boundary Mill, in Lancashire. The firm, which was initially founded in 1980 and initially traded under the name Colony Candles, will this year invest £2m in IT and equipment as it continues to grow its UK and overseas reputation.

Mr Armstead, who has previously worked as a key decision maker for BP and Nestle, said the firm had ‘become his life’.

He said: “We turned this company around in the biggest recession since the thirties and a banking crisis.

“We went from importing 55 per cent to manufacturing 90 per cent. This year we will invest £2m pounds and we won’t be borrowing a penny.

“When the recession hit us we had been going a year and we were just getting ourselves into the business equivalent of a clear weather patch. I used that analogy with staff.

“I said I had hoped we would be sailing in shorts and t-shirts but we were going to have to put up with rough weather. Luckily, we were used to that and some of our competitors were not.

“It hasn’t been me that has made this success - it has been the whole team and that has made me very proud.”

South Lakes Services

A LINDALE business that went from a one-man-operation to a thriving company in just five years is set to expand even more as it adds to its services.

Keith Dobson, who relocated from Somerset to Cumbria in 2007, now owns the multi-functional South Lakes Services that employs 52 staff and is continuing to grow every day.

The firm’s staff clean a number of local schools, offices, car showrooms and holiday lets, do maintenance jobs and laundry.

But it all started off as Mr Dobson just ‘doing a bit of a window cleaning round’.

Mr Dobson said: “After the window cleaning I got asked to clean a few offices and it just went from there - it all expanded quite quickly and now window cleaning is just an additional service. We clean more than 150 holiday lets, and do laundry for a number of hotels and bed and breakfasts, as well as all sorts of maintenence, which includes cutting a lot of grass.”

“We used to contract out things like the laundry, but just came to realise that we could do it ourselves - it was a natural progression.”

After substantial growth, Mr Dobson decided he needed a helping hand in management, and recruited Adrian Barker as his business partner.

He said: “Adrian has worked with me for two years - he was needed when the business grew quite rapidly.”

And now they are hoping to take on oven and carpet cleaning, and expand their service area even further. Mr Dobson said: “At the moment we work in about a 25-mile radius from where we are in Lindale, but we’d like to go up as far as Keswick and down as far as Lancaster.

“And we will grow into other types of service, as well as continuing to concentrate on what we already do well. We work very hard - the business runs from six in the morning until ten at night, and will continue to do so to provide the high-quality service we pride ourselves on.”

Lakes Speciality Foods

AS THE Lake District’s only licensed red meat cutting plant, Lakes Speciality Foods Ltd has an established reputation among chefs and caterers that can only grow.

Founded in May 2004 with just five employees in a single unit at Bankside Barn in Staveley, LSF steadily outgrew its premises to take over all five units on the site, and now has 25 staff.

Director Dan Weston said it was the enthusiasm and dedication of the staff that had steered the firm towards such success.

“Everyone is proud of the product,” he said. “We are proud to sell it and proud to work here.”

Primarily a catering butchery business, LSF supplies hotels, pubs, restaurants and guest houses throughout the North West with cuts of read meat, poultry, game, and a whole range of cooked meats.

Mr Weston said: “Several of our production team come from hotel kitchen backgrounds, which gives them the understanding of cuts, margins and specials that head chefs are looking for.

“We have a massive collective pool of experience and knowledge, and as we have grown our market share we have always invested in the right staff who are capable of taking on responsibility. They are as proud to work here as the directors are to own it.

“Attention to detail, without a shadow of a doubt, is the secret to our success. That is throughout the whole company.

“We have a real team atmosphere and it is the enthusiasm and dedication of the growing staff levels that have enabled us to grow to where we are today.”

Accolades collected by the firm include ‘Maker of Britain’s best sausages’, best bacon manufacturer and best pancetta.

LSF has also launched its own retail brand - ‘Pinks’ now supplies 48 shops in the North West with 56 different lines, including sausages, smoked salmon, chutneys and cheese.

Looking to the future, Mr Weston said LSF’s strategy was to remain fresh, vibrant and reactive.