View From The Top
Richard Chadwick
Group Chairman
2014 was certainly a year my
team and I can reflect back on
with great significance for
Airedale Chemical Holdings
Group. Overall it was a
challenging year however we
are now at the very start of what
is an extremely exciting 5 year
plan for the Group. With both
Airedale Chemical Company
Limited and Airedale Solutions
Limited continuing their
respective growth plans
throughout 2014 our ambitions
remain constant for the year
ahead with a group turnover
target of over £50m.
Within Airedale Chemical, as
always, we strive for excellence in
everything we do (and have done
for 41 years), so against our usual
‘sky high’ standards we would
probably admit 2014 was a
challenging year driven in large by
a disappointing 2nd half. With
actual 2014 turnover recorded at
£40m this does however still
represent a +3.5% growth for the
business. This would be a positive
year for most UK businesses
however in line with our mapped
20% growth expectations our
belief is that this still proves we
have room for improvement. Our
ambition for 2015 is to grow
Airedale Chemical turnover to over
£45m; something we plan on
achieving through the integration
of our new sales & marketing team
of 16. Going forward the
departments remit will be to
develop and solidify new business
within high growth markets,
specifically penetrating previously
uncharted territory for the
business.
Our new Procurement team is now
fully established into the business,
complete with structured chemical
sourcing and cost saving initiatives
to ensure the business is more
competitive across a greater
number of products and
industries. This we believe will
ultimately provide our customers
with even more chemicals, more
choice and more opportunities for
their businesses. A major initiative
for 2015 will be our financial
commitment in upwards of
£500,000 to the Biocide Products
Directive, positioning Airedale
Chemical as one of few UK
manufacturers of Peracetic Acid a key growth product for the
business.
Other initiatives that will be
employed this year will be the
running of an internal transport
network between our group sites
& external warehouses aimed at
improving efficiency of raw
material supply between each
Airedale Group company. This we
believe will reduce the need to use
customer designated transport for
internal deliveries, ensuring we are
more reactive to customer
requirements. Further to this we
will be operating a full time team of
staff at our external warehouse
location from the start of this year
to service increases to our order
pipelines.
With Airedale Solutions Limited;
after a significant investment
period involving the aquisition of a
new site, production technology
and various staff all aimed at
gearing the business towards
organic growth, we are now
confidently primed to move
forward with our projected growth
plan. With more blue chip brands
and key retail continuing to work
with Airedale Solutions we
anticipate a promising future for
the business within both the
private label market and through
our own brand, glow™. To Read
more on Airedale Solutions see our
new INSIDE GROUP feature
On behalf of my team and I we
look forward to continuing to
work with all our customers
across our growing business
groups in what we believe will
be another exciting year
for Airedale Chemical
Group Holdings.
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