FEATURE Q&A: Stephen Harrison
Tomorrow’s Cleaning Editor Martin Wharmby speaks to Harrisons owner and Managing Director, Stephen Harrison, about the company’s successes and future.
It’s been a busy year for Harrisons so far. A few months ago, Harrisons acquired the business and assets of Coventry-based Ecotech (Europe) – can you tell us more about this, and are further acquisitions possible in the future?
Ecotech (Europe) was an established business already operating in a similar marketplace to ourselves, certainly in terms of dry wipes. When they became available to buy it was an opportunity that we couldn’t say no to, especially because they also have a wet wipe business as well, which Harrisons doesn’t have. It was a logical range extension for us to get involved with.
In terms of future acquisitions like this, they would certainly have to be opportunity driven, and they will have to be a good strategic fit for us. As a business, we've specialised in being a wipes expert, so if any other wipes opportunities – both wet or dry – come forward, then yes, we’d definitely be very interested.
Harrisons also signed a third-party logistics partnership with Magnum Logistics, why was this an essential step for you?
Our headquarters/manufacturing hub are based near Romford in Essex, and as our business has grown we’ve needed more storage space. With around 80 great members of staff at the site, we’re quite geographically tied to the area, so moving our location was out of the question.
“To be under one
ownership continually for 133 years is statistically quite unique.”
Previously we had two satellite operations further afield, but we had the opportunity to bring them both together into one site thanks to Magnum, which excitedly is down by London Gateway. This means that from the front door you can see the containers physically coming off the ships.
It also means our carbon miles footprint is significantly reduced. Compared to bringing a container all the way from Felixstowe down to Essex before returning the empty container to Felixstowe, we are massively reducing the road miles within the UK that our products are travelling.
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So, what we get with Magnum is a modern, computerised warehouse, an improvement in our carbon miles and hopefully really, really good opportunities because of the location and how we can expand the site. This should mean we can push the business forward and know what we have the infrastructure to support.
Does running a family business with over 125 years of history add to the pressure of your day-to-day work, and what has it been like bringing your son Josh onboard?
It’s really, really exciting for me, and the family, to be working with Josh. The feedback I get from our customers and suppliers about another Harrison coming through has been warmly and enthusiastically received.
He previously spent three years working at a business called Teneo, where he learnt a lot about communications and marketing. If you look at the profile of Harrisons over the last six to eight months, especially with the new ranges coming out, he and the team have really driven us forwards so he’s immediately adding value, which is really exciting.
Regarding the history of the business, I'd like to say that there’s no added pressure, definitely not on a daily basis. Like a lot of things, after a few years working you get used to it and it goes from the front of your mind. Every so often people say things and that, in a very warm and kind way, reminds you of the achievement of the family. To be under one ownership continually for 133 years is statistically quite unique. Only a very small number of companies actually get to achieve that.
It’s special and I take it as a real positive because there’s lots of goodwill out there for the company which my predecessors, and hopefully myself to a degree, have earned.
Can you tell us more about Harrisons’ new Industrial range?
The nonwoven side of the business has been built up over many years around the colour-coded hygiene side, which is an area that’s easy to create a distinct ‘range’ around and understand. On the industrial side, wiping has always been important to us; you'll find us in aerospace, automotive, printing and other areas. It’s a very significant part of the business.
However, it’s my view that while companies have been creating individual industrial products, nobody had really been trying to create a full ‘range’. So, the idea behind the Industrial range was to build it based upon key features like absorbency, strength and low linting, and to give measurable, scientific distinctions between each product’s capabilities in comparison with other features. Within the range we have three levels, which we call Pro, Premium and Technical. Depending on how important each of the three
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