C & A Embroidery and Print director Laura Flood has grown her Aycliffe team to three .
SEWING
Young entrepreneur ’ s embroidery and print firm is on path to success
THE SEEDS
WORDS : SARAH WALKER PICTURE : CHRIS BOOTH
An award-winning business management graduate is celebrating 10 years in business , after taking her parents ’ company to new heights .
Laura Flood , 29 , began working in the equine laundry her parents owned at the age of 18 and was key to diversifying the business , eventually setting up C & A Embroidery and Print .
The company offers embroidered and printed clothing such as workwear , school uniform and sportswear – anything that needs company logos embroidered or printed on .
Laura , director of C & A , explains how the business idea developed when customers of her parents ’ equine laundry , which was established in 2007 , started asking whether they could embroider horse rugs .
Laura began working in the company in 2012 , helping to take this new business opportunity forward and after completing her business management degree , she moved to a unit in Newton Aycliffe in 2018 .
“ When my parents had the laundry , it was mainly equine clothing we embroidered ,” explains Laura .
“ Now , it ’ s workwear , sportwear and that kind of thing , our main focus is on the commercial sector ”
Laura has already enjoyed ten successful years in business , during which she won Small Business of the Year at the 2022 Make Your Mark Awards – something she describes as a “ good surprise ”.
Under Laura ’ s leadership , C & A Embroidery and Print also thrived during the coronavirus pandemic .
“ My business wasn ’ t affected by Covid , in fact 2020 was our busiest year to date ,” Laura says .
“ We were working with businesses that still required all their uniform , such as construction businesses , engineering companies , manufacturing companies and healthcare organisations .
“ They all still needed branded workwear supplying because they were all the keyworkers .”
This year , Laura saw a 100 per cent increase in orders and is on target for another 50 per cent increase by 2023 .
After taking on her first member of staff in 2019 , staff numbers are now up to three , with firm plans to take on another member of staff over the next year .
As a proud tenant on Aycliffe Business Park , Laura has a number of contracts with her neighbours and already supplies workwear to Contego , Finley Structures , Cobots Online and Collins Seafoods .
“ We also started doing work for Cleveland Containers this year ,” Laura says .
“ They are a big company in Stockton so we were pleased to be working with companies like this .
“ We ’ re trying to work with more clients on the business park and want to raise more awareness of our business amongst our neighbours . “ Everyone has uniforms , so if we can help you with your workwear needs , get in touch .” This year , C & A also started providing Greenfield Community College in Newton Aycliffe with their school uniform and the company is looking to expand into the provision of more branded school uniform locally .
“ We had a good response from parents saying it was good to be able to actually come in and try different sizes on ,” Laura says .
“ It can be a bit more of a hassle if the companies supplying the uniforms are out of the area .”
Laura ’ s proactive approach to marketing has also seen her attend the Emcon engineering and manufacturing show at the Glow Centre two years running , something she describes as having been a huge success for the firm .
“ We ’ ve got a few more clients in the pipeline from it ,” says Laura .
Looking ahead , Laura is excited to see what the future holds for C & A Embroidery and Print – and is certainly putting the dissertation she completed on growing a business as part of her degree to good use !
She says : “ The last few years have been a real success and we are optimistic about what the future holds for the business .
“ I ’ m looking forward to building on what we ’ ve already achieved in taking the business forward .”
Find out more at caembroidery . co . uk .
The magazine for Aycliffe Business Park | 25