Further growth on the cards for R&R

YORKSHIRE entrepreneur James Lambert has built R&R Ice Cream from a £250,000 business employing five people to one with turnover touching £750m and employing almost 3,500 people across Europe, but he has no intention of stopping there.

Mr Lambert, who was recently named EY’s Overall North Entrepreneur Of The Year 2013, says that further growth is in the pipeline for the Northallerton-based business, originally Richmond Ice Cream, which he founded with a group of farmers in 1985.

Talking to TheBusinessDesk.com, he said: “There’s only us and Unilever making money across the European ice cream market. We have a successful mix of brand and label and the future continues to look bright. We will be looking for further expansion through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions.”

He said that R&R has had the “big burst” of buying ice cream maker Fredericks, in a recent £49m deal, as well as the relocation of its Leeds factory, and the business is now going through a period of consolidation.

“We have lots of new and exciting products launching next year and further opportunities are out there,” said Mr Lambert.

Exporting has been a key ingredient to R&R’s success – it is now Europe’s leading supplier of own-label ice cream with a branded portfolio including Nestlé, Skinny Cow, YooMoo frozen yoghurt, Kelly’s of Cornwall and Disney.

“By 2005, we had a third of the UK market – we could have gone off into frozen pizzas or frozen meat but what did we know about that?,” said Mr Lambert, who was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his work in the manufacturing industry.

“So, we went into Europe – we have a lot more in common operating in Europe than we did buying a beefburger business. We targeted Germany first, its where all the money is, and if you want to go into a new market, you want to go into the toughest and the biggest, you don’t want to be in the sideshow. If we could win in Germany, we could win anywhere.”

Since 2006, R&R has acquired a number of ice cream companies, turning R&R into a pan-European business. It has swooped for Rolland and Pilpa in France, Durigon in Germany and Eskigel, Italy’s largest own-label ice cream manufacturer.

Mr Lambert says that confidence, self-belief and preparing for the future are essential to building a successful business.

“Believe in what you are doing, for your business and for your consumers,” he said. “You’re just as good as anybody else out there, it just comes down to believing you can do it.

“It’s this belief that the word ‘No’ isn’t an answer you are going to accept. People will tell you you can’t do this and you can’t do that – for example if you are going to trade with Tesco you can’t trade with Sainsbury’s, and I thought well, there’s just no logic in that. A bit of stubbornness goes a long way and I think you need that in business.”

He believes that fortitude, a bit of luck and surrounding yourself with the best people are the keys to growth.

Talking of his award win, Mr Lambert said: “The award was for everybody here really, like all awards when you are running a business and employing a large amount of people, it rewards all their hard work over the years in helping to create such a fantastic company.

“Energy, attitude and commitment is what you need from people in your business – it’s all about who’s behind it.

“Get your people to bring ideas to the table, allow them to use their talents and give them the room to grow.”

The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards honoured 12 business leaders in total, in 11 categories who were judged and selected from 48 entrepreneurs leading 41 companies, from across the North West, Yorkshire and North East.

All Northern winners will go on to represent the region at the UK finals in October, and have a chance to compete at EY’s World Entrepreneur Of The Year in Monaco next year.

Stuart Watson, partner at EY in Leeds and EY UK Entrepreneur Of The Year Leader, said: “James and his senior management team execute a well-defined strategy based around rigorous financial and operational control and a constant flow of innovation that delivers interesting ice cream products that sell well to consumers across Europe at a cost per unit that pleases the retailers who sell them.

“The judges were impressed with the growth prospects in the business as well as the track record so far and it will be interesting to see what the national EY Entrepreneur of the Year judges make of the recent high profile investment by PAI.”