5 things I’ve learned running my own business: Ben Guy, Phoenix

Ben Guy has been MD of Phoenix Group for nine years; he offers an insight into the lessons he’s learned at the helm of the Nottingham-based high-care manufacture and contract packing company.

Transparency pays
Be an open box and you will reap the rewards.

Whether we’re pressing oil, packing sauce or manufacturing high-care food, from scratch, we’re always handling our customer’s product.

Therefore, it’s essential that our systems are transparent at every stage of the process, enabling our customers to track their product’s progress throughout, and see our methods first hand.

Whether we’re cold-pressing oil or manufacturing a high-care food, we offer an end-to-end service for many of our clients and this requires the building of strong partnerships with customers and suppliers of all materials. We foster transparency by leading by example and encouraging our suppliers to mirror our approach: this keeps our systems running efficiently.

Consistency is key
When you’re producing large volumes of product, or filling 15 million bottles of oil per year, the pressure is on to ensure that every bottle is finished to the same, high-standard.

This is the greatest concern for our customers and therefore it’s at the very top of our priority list.

In order to achieve this, systems must run like clockwork and any issues that may arise must be addressed immediately. Communicating with suppliers and customers as and when problems occur clearly and quickly to find a resolution is the key to maintaining manufacturing consistency.

It’s a marathon not a sprint
By focusing on one service at a time and iterating only when excellence has been achieved, you will grow a strong businesses that has the trust of its customers.

When Phoenix Group was founded in 2007, we focused on cold-pressing rapeseed oil to pro highest quality possible. We spent time developing our systems, finding the best suppliers and technology to produce a superior product.

This process was repeated a few years later when we started to offer contract packing and filling services; we innovated our own bespoke method for filling coconut oil, which included bulk melting of the raw coconut oil when it arrives in solid form from the Philippines.

Now we’re about to move into the high-care food manufacturing sector, and we have put the same time and energy into creating a service offering that customers can trust.

Be a leader not a follower
Why follow the rest of your ‘industry flock’, when you could be the shepherd?

My decision to implement cutting-edge, app technology into Phoenix Group’s contract packing system was a risk: we were one of the first SMEs in the industry to do so and we were starting from scratch.

But being one of the first to take this step into unchartered territory had multiple benefits: we designed the bespoke technology to work for our systems and site, rather than trying to replicate the work of those that went before us, and of course, we positioned ourselves as innovators within the industry.

Grow together
When your company is growing quickly, expanding in staff numbers, locations and service provision, it’s essential to keep the entire team on board for the ride.

Between 2014 and 2015, Phoenix Group experienced 99% increase in output and a 70% rise in revenue, year-on-year, and we now divide our workload between three different sites: clear and effective communication is key.

Our use of app technology has been key to successfully maintaining this communication across these three sites, allowing all of our team to access production reports and stock data at the click of a button, wherever they are.