DCS targets £200m in sales
STRATFORD health and beauty product firm DCS Europe is targeting £200m in annual sales by 2015.
The firm, set up and run by entrepreneur Denys Shortt, currently sells around £128m worth of products annually but has experienced a 14% sales hike so far this year and says it has growth opportunities in the pipeline for 2013.
Shortt said: “We have a laser-like focus on growth – we have grown every year since we established in 1994 and it’s all organic – no acquisitions.”
DCS invested £150,000 in its High Street discount division last year and this has proved a good strategic move with sales this year up 47% at £8m.
The firm also opened a new health and beauty factory in Stratford two years ago investing £3m in a new plant to make shampoo, hand wash and skincare products. Sales at DCS Manufacturing in May were up 30% at £644,000 and year to date sales are up 17%.
The factory has just won large orders for a retail chain in Australia, with products being shipped in July and September.
Shortt added: “We have proved you can make products in Britain and be competitive. My aim has always been to reduce the carbon footprint of health and beauty products – it has always seemed crazy to me to be shipping toiletries in from Turkey and China when we can make them here ourselves and of a better quality.”
Export sales at DCS are strong with large orders from South Africa, Angola and Australia for the Enliven health and beauty brand owned by DCS.
Shortt said: “We have shipped 14 containers of Enliven just in the last month which is a record – that’s millions of bottles of toiletries going abroad and all made in Britain.”
DCS employs around 250 people.
