GLOUCESTERSHIRE’S 50 LEADING Entrepreneurs
Dear reader, and especially those of you featured on these pages as Gloucestershire’s 50 Leading Entrepreneurs.We have numbered each of the entries, but please, please take note – they are in no particular order. (Although saying that, in Punchline’s view, in their own way they are all (of course) number one) l Mark Owen
Chris Adey founder of ADEY Professional Heating Solutions Cheltenham Chris Adey started the business back in 2003, based on his faith in his invention - the MagnaClean® filter, an ingenious magnetic filtration product for household boilers. The company demonstrated considerable growth, from £18m annual revenue in 2012 to £34m in 2015 “achieving significant volumes” in over 40 countries. In June 2016, a management buyout was announced, allowing Mr Adey the chance to capitalise on his efforts. Aside from the wealth he created, there is the no small matter of his legacy – a thriving business with more than 110 staff and apprentices to boot l 1
Gill Taylor managing director of Newberry International Produce Limited Newent Daughter of a teaching assistant and painter and decorator, Gillian Taylor (nee Pearson) was just 10 when her father died. “He was the main breadwinner. I had to wash up at local pubs and clean rich people’s silver to earn money and help my mum,” she told The Times newspaper. She had aspired to go to university, but the fees put it out of her reach and she went to work for a fruit and vegetable importer instead. At 19, and already working 16 hours a day, she begged her boss to let her sell frozen smoothie sachets to local juice bars. He laughed at the idea. Apparently she was dismissed as a “silly girl” by some. The then 19-year-old sales manager threatened to quit and set up the business herself. She got her way. Six months later her sub-brand of ‘Gills Fruit Fusions’ had sales of £1m. Today she owns the UK based food ingredients manufacturing business, now home to the brands Smootheelicious, Milkeelicious, Nutri-Pellet & Grange Hall Farm. Turnover at Newberry is in excess of £19 million l 2
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Bob Holt Mears Group Gloucester Plenty has been
written about Mr Holt taking the little-known Gloucestershire-based Mears to flotation and beyond. But it is well worth re-telling. After a career successfully buying and selling firms under the wing of one Lord Ashcroft
and Tony Berry of Arrow Group, Mr Holt, the son of a greengrocer, decided to find one he could grow and keep. In 1996, he bought what became Mears Group for £50,000 from founder, Mike Turl. Today it is among the very biggest firms in Gloucestershire – by turnover – employs 140- plus staff at its headquarters in Brockworth and thousands more UK-wide. Turnover for the first six
months of this year was up 10 per cent to £480.8 million. Its charitable work is worthy of note, as is its dedication to his Footprints Foundation, which raises thousands for charitable concerns. And then there are his other directorships. But we could be here forever l
September 2019 | www. punchline-gloucester .com | 21
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