Tissue maker Accrol Papers cleans up at IoD awards

IoD North West has named a Lancashire business leader as Overall Director of the Year at its annual awards last night.

Majid Hussain, of Blackburn-based tissue manufacturer Accrol Papers, beat 27 other shortlisted directors to the title, and also won Family Director of the Year at the black tie event at Lancashire County Cricket Club.

Picking up the award he said he was surprised to have won given the quality and experience of other contenders.

Accrol was founded 20 years ago and has grown to become one of Europe’s largest independent soft tissue converters, with manufacturing capacity in excess of 65,000 tonnes a year.

Last month annual results showed that sales has passed £70m in the year to April, with further growth expected this year. The business was founded by Jawid Hussain but the company is now run by his three sons Majid, Wajid and Mozam.

Other winners included Lawrence Jones of cloud computing firm UKFast, Tony Moore of specialist manufacturer Tenmat, and Chris Lamont of Kendal accountancy firm Lamont Pridmore.
 
Tony Attard, chairman of IoD North West, said: “The Director of the Year awards are always a great event to be involved with, and this year was no exception. I’m very proud that in the last decade the awards have grown in popularity, and this year we received a record number of really high quality entries.
 
“Congratulations to all of the winners and those shortlisted, who have demonstrated this year that, despite a challenging economy, they have the drive and the commitment to push their organisations forward and really raise the bar for business in the North West.”
 
The winners are:
 
Director of The Year for a Large Company
Steve Parfett – AG Parfett & Sons (Stockport)
 
Director of The Year for a Small to Medium Company
Lawrence Jones – UKFast (Manchester)
 
Director of The Year for Corporate Responsibility
Chris Lamont – Lamont Pridmore (Cumbria)
 
Director of The Year for a Family Company
Majid Hussain – Accrol Papers (Blackburn)
 
Non Executive Director of The Year
Clare Briegal – Warrington & Halton Hospitals NHS Trust (Cheshire)
 
Public and Third Sector Director of The Year
Cathy Elliott – Lancashire Community Foundation (Accrington)
 
Young Director of The Year
Colin Stevens – Better Bathrooms (Leigh)
 
Global Director of The Year
Tony Moore – Tenmat (Manchester)
 
Weightmans Award for Innovation
David Hymers – Totalpost Services PLC (Alston, Cumbria)
 
Overall Director of the Year
Majid Hussain – Accrol Papers (Blackburn)

Best Student – Salford University chartered director programme
Jo Lynch, human resources manager at Thos Storey Fabrication (Manchester)