8
news
From Lush to Serocor – companies that fly the Solent success flag
What do companies like Simplyhealth, McCarthy & Stone, Lush Cosmetics, Micheldever Group and Southern Cooperative have in common?
They are all part of the Solent 250, the annual survey of unquoted companies published by The Business Magazine.
Supported by HSBC, Grant Thornton and Blake Morgan, the Solent 250 is the definitive list of private companies in the region – and the 2015/16 list will be unveiled in the November issue, as well as at an exclusive dinner for CEOs and key directors at Lainston House next month.
Serocor is one success story on the Solent 250 list. With sales rising from £76 million in 2010 to circa £110m today, Serocor was founded by Paul Huntingdon (pictured), a student at University of Portsmouth who joined IBM for a year‘s internship, and never looked back.
To read Paul Huntingdon‘s story, see the September issue of The Business Magazine online. Or for more on Serocor, including an interview with CEO Mike Gawthorne, go to
www.businessmag.co.uk/the-solent-250/ serocor
Another success is Lush, which has just been voted the most well-regarded brand in Britain. Lush was given an 89% rating by customers – placing the company ahead of First Direct and John Lewis.
Lush, which was at number five in last year‘s Solent 250, has been a remarkable success story for Poole. Founded by Mark Constantine and beauty therapist Liz Weir, it began after a
chance meeting between the two in a hair and beauty salon in Poole.
Initially, Constantine and Weir supplied products to the Body Shop but when Anita Roddick‘s company began to focus on its own branded products, the pair set up a mail-order cosmetics company called Cosmetics-To-Go, which eventually went into administration.
But Constantine and Weir didn‘t give up, eventually creating their own products in a shop in Poole and selling them to eager customers, one of whom came up with the brand name, Lush.
Success stories like these abound in the Solent 250 listings. Watch out for them in the next issue.
If you are a Solent 250 company and would like to come to our dinner at Lainston House, near Winchester, contact events manager Linda Morse at
linda@elcot.co.uk
SPONSORS
www.businessmag.co.uk
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – OCTOBER 2015
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52