Chemicals firm which supplies special effects to blockbuster movies enjoys growth

The latest in our Northern Growth Accelerator series of interviews, in partnership with EY, profiling exciting, fast-growth businesses from across the North.

Chemicals firm Vickers Laboratories has pushed for growth in the last decade through its continued focus on driving up quality and diversification.

Managing director of the Pudsey-based firm, Steve Foster, is a qualified chemist and has worked at the firm for 25 years. Alongside his management team colleagues, he completed an MBO in 2007 and since then the firm has had its sights set on organic growth.  Foster said that since the MBO, turnover at the firm had doubled.

Around 25% of the company’s turnover comes from its contact lens solution division, which sees the firm distil and freeze chemicals through various cycles in a new building on the Pudsey site. An investment of around £100,000 in new equipment has recently been made in this division to cope with demand and ensure that quality assurances are in place.

The contact lens solution is exported globally and one of the main markets for distribution is Costa Rica; with the USA also recently becoming another marketplace Vickers Laboratories has begun to supply.

Steve Foster

Foster said: “Demand in the contact lens division has gone up ten-fold in the last five years. The product has a standard life cycle but is quite hard to manage. As other smaller chemist firms have folded in difficult trading standards, we have really pushed for growth of these products and it’s taken the world by storm

“The expectation is that this side of the business will still grow. We were last year looking at a manufacturing plant in Peurto Rico with a view to potentially opening a site there.”

He added that the firm had some “difficult decisions” to make soon in terms of the expansion of the footprint of the Pudsey-based business, as the firm is starting to outgrow the site. “It’s about balancing up the challenges and the opportunities. We weren’t impacted by the recession and we have grown every year since the MBO,” he added.

The firm also provides chemicals and liquids for sectors including education, food/beverage, textiles, utilities and pharmaceuticals. Around 50 people work for the firm at present across all divisions. Foster said: “We have the capability and are big enough to deal with the PLCs, global brands and healthcare firms. But we are also small enough to build up relationships and work with the smaller firms. That works  to our advantage.”

Diversification has been a key driver for sustained growth at the firm. Around 20 years ago, the company launched a special effects arm of the business and this has since secured major contracts with blockbuster film companies. Vickers Laboratories create artificial blood, special effect fluids and smokes which can be used in films.

The firm provided the chocolate for the river running through the recent remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Other films that the company’s work can be seen in include  Sweeney Todd and Sleepy Hollow. The division also made the ‘black vomit’ that appeared in a Selfridges live shop window display and the firm continues to supply cruise liners with artificial chocolate to run through fountains on-board – keeping the display visually appealing.

Foster said: “Getting the Charlie and the Chocolate factory contract, in particular, was transformational for the business.

“The special effects business has to compete with CGI but much of the film industry prefer liquids to CGI because it looks more realistic and the chemicals we make are less messy than the real thing. We once has to create 20,000 litres of red mud – it looks the business but it can be hosed down, unlike the real thing.

“This means that we can be creative and the team like working on these projects because they can have a bit of fun. It has been a lucrative side of the business and we have had a dozen jobs each year.”

Foster said the firm had benefited from diversification and always delivering quality, adding: “It has always been our plan to produce quality products and charge a premium. Many people we speak to are amazed at the wide range of products we produce. I definitely have a proud feeling about our growth and we have a great team here. There is a lot going on in Leeds in the manufacturing space and we are engaging with schools to inspire the next generations into the sector.”