British marque is helping manufacturer clean up in overseas markets

BRADFORD manufacturer Astonish is looking to clean up as it pushes ahead with an aggressive growth strategy.

Astonish manufacturers cleaning products which it sells in more than 50 countries. It has doubled its turnover since moving to its current site alongside the M606 less than five years ago, and has plans to add the next £10m of revenue at an even faster pace.

Managing director Howard Moss – son of company founder Alan – expects an additional £5m of annual sales to be generated by the end of the current financial year in May. This would maintain the accelerated growth the business has enjoyed in recent years and see it achieve a turnover of £20m for 2014-15.

The company, which is marking its 40th anniversary this year, began as a door-to-door sales operation in the 1970s, promoting its products at agricultural shows and home exhibition events. It soon moved into manufacturing, using mail order and telesales, then discount retailers and TV shopping channels as the main sales channels.

Today the company employs 65 people at its 50,000 sq ft facility in Bradford, having previously been based at two other West Yorkshire sites, Meanwood and Pudsey.

Exports account for 40% of the company’s revenues, with Korea, China and Japan among its most important markets. However it wasn’t always lucrative trade.

Mr Moss said: “The exhibitions were seasonal, so my father decided he would go to America with his product, he thought there has to be an opportunity out there.

“He went out to the States and looked for ways to sell the product over there. At first it totally flopped, but the type of character he is, he went again the next year and he started to have a scenario where he had demonstrations going on in the UK and in the States.” 

“Since then we have developed a whole host of products. We now have more than 70 products.”

The growth of the value sector – and the shift by supermarkets and large retailers into promoting value brands – has enabled Astonish’s UK sales to grow, although abroad the British marque helps it to be positioned and priced as a premium product.

“We are a British manufacturing business, which you can see in the brand, and we believe it stands for something. There are so many markets overseas that still perceive British-manufactured products of being of a high standard.

“Our number one market is Asia, especially Korea, China and Japan. Those markets won’t be suffering from a lack of quality cleaning products so the fact we are able to seize a significant part of the market for our products says a lot.

“We are not anywhere near reaching a plateau or a stage where we are maximising the potential we have.

“There’s a whole world out there. There are still huge markets we are not present in and we want to find the right distributors. Even in markets we are prominent in, like Asia, there’s still huge scope.”

The company is also continuing to expand its product range and in April and June will be launching new additions, including its first foray into personal care products.

Although it may seem like a long way from agricultural shows, Mr Moss has a focused approach on what Astonish provides its customers.

“It’s still what we were doing 40 years ago,” said Mr Moss. “A top quality product at an affordable price.”