Review: Hot 100 Event 2015

Lancashire Business View hosted more than 100 business delegates from across the county for the Hot 100 event at Themis at Burnley College.

The Hot 100 is a unique league table of the county’s most profitable SMEs, the businesses that are the backbone of the UK and Lancashire economy.

• Aggregated Hot 100 pre-tax profit: £157m – up 16% (2014: £135m)
• Aggregated Hot 100 turnover: £1,52bn – up 9% (2014: £1.39bn)
• Aggregated Hot 100 employment: 9,655 – up 5% (2014: 9,047)

Laila Remtulla MBE, owner and founder of Laila’s Fine Foods, number 46 on the list with pre-tax profits of £1.185m, said: “Passion. It’s all about passion and quality. That’s what keeps us going.

Ken Shackleton, managing director of The Cardboard Box Company, number 68 on the list with pre-tax profits of £941,000, said: “You can’t stand still. Whatever you achieve one year, the expectation is you do better the following year. It isn’t really good enough to do just the same; that certainly shouldn’t be the target. If you invest you’re going to do better.

Jo Varey, managing director of Granby Marketing Services, number 80 on the list with pre-tax profits of £845,000, said: “What drives me forward is being able to support my family but also being able to support the families of the people that we employ as well and I get real satisfaction from creating new jobs and having that sustainable business.

Paul Taberner, investment director at Enterprise Ventures, number 24 on the list with pre-tax profits of £1.971m, said: “Once you’ve had success in business, no one wants to go backwards. You’ve got to go forwards and continue to achieve. It’s about making profit and enjoying a nice lifestyle that goes with that.

Mark Schofield, director at Haworths, the business responsible for collating the Hot 100, said: “My optimism continues to increase. For the last three years I have been preaching the resurgence of Lancashire and these results are absolutely fantastic, we are in a fantastic place here, and it is our good fortune to be in business whilst this is happening.”

“There’s lots going on in East Lancashire, lots of employers coming to the area and there’s a bit of fear with them thinking they need more staff that may need training and up-skilling and need support. So we work with those employers to create a sustainable workforce.”

John Whittingslow, CEO of Napthens, said: “We’re very busy at the moment across all the sectors that we deal with. Right across the board you can see that businesses are active, driving forward and trying to grow.”