Security firm exceeds £3m turnover and eyes further growth.

"The growth of Parallel Security has been helped in no small part by the expertise and coaching provided by Business Wales AGP."

Ensuring other businesses remain secure and people stay safe is at the heart of what Wrexham-based Parallel Security does. The firm, founded by managing director Francis Johnson in 2014, has enjoyed some robust growth in its six or so years of existence. With an ambitious plan for further expansion, the business is enjoying some exciting times.

From door supervision to events security and commercial cleaning, Parallel Security has quickly become a trusted brand. Here, Francis Johnson tells his story and reveals the highs and lows of leading a company from its inception. He also explains how being part of the Business Wales Accelerated Growth Programme (AGP) has helped their business.

The Business Wales Accelerated Growth Programme (AGP) provides targeted support for ambitious growing firms. The programme is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government.

Tell us about Parallel Security.
Our sense of place is central to the business, its character and how it operates. It's also crucial to our story. We're proud to be from Wrexham, proud to be based in Wrexham and proud to be providing jobs and opportunities for people in this area. I'm a graduate of Glyndŵr University – I have a BA, MBA and PGCE qualification from there. So who we are is very much centred on where we are. That's important to me, and it's been key to the development of the company.

Leading Parallel has been both immensely challenging and equally rewarding. We now have staff all over the country, from Glasgow to London, but we are very much concentrating on North East Wales. With the events we usually serve being affected by Covid, we had to rethink how to push the business forward.

We've come a long way in a short time, having started out predominantly as a door security firm. Not only have we worked at some of Britain's largest events, we're also contracted to a number of hospitals, and we provide mobile response, site and corporate security to some of the biggest organisations in the country. We also have a commercial cleaning arm which is another important element of the business. So we have plenty of strings to our bow!

It means we're diverse but also very much focused on what we do and on delivering the best quality service for our clients. That focus has helped to deliver some exceptional growth, and I'm really proud of what we've achieved as a team.

We've gone from a turnover of £69,000 in our first year (2014) and we are all set to exceed £3M turnover in 2020. We're a great success story for Wrexham and Wales.

What are your proudest moments in business so far?
I've pointed to our growth as something of which I'm really proud. I've always known how much potential this business has, but reaching £1m turnover was proof of that. Our team has grown, and we're heading for further growth - this fills me with pride every day.

If you were starting again, what would you do differently?
There are plenty of lessons you learn as you start out in business. I guess that also applies to entrepreneurs who've been leading companies for decades. Learning is all part of the process. The biggest lesson for me has been to bring onboard the right people with the right skills and mindset. Another thing I think I'd do differently is work more with companies in Wales, building our local economy by working with other dynamic and ambitious firms.

How has support from Business Wales AGP helped your business?
The growth of Parallel Security has been helped in no small part by the expertise and coaching provided by Business Wales AGP. It's been such a worthwhile experience for us, and the mentoring and support we've had from our Relationship Manager Idris Price has positioned us well as we look towards further expansion.

What advice and guidance would you give other businesses starting out?

● You need to be open to new things. Don't be frightened of the new or the challenging.

● Understand that there's no 'box' in business – think outside the box. There are rich rewards if you embrace innovation.
 

For more information on Parallel Security visit here.

Further information on the Business Wales Accelerated Growth Programm

How Welsh mineral water company has become one of the UK's best-known brands

"The help of Business Wales AGP has been an important factor in our growth".

From humble beginnings on a family farm to one of the UK's best-known mineral water brands – the journey of Radnor Hills is fascinating, and a Welsh success story to celebrate.

The business has positioned itself to take advantage of the growth in the soft drinks sector and has won many prestigious contracts along the way.

Here Radnor Hills' Penny Butler tells us how it all started, the pitfalls they have encountered along the way and offers advice for other entrepreneurs.

Tell us about Radnor Hills.
We could begin more than 100 years ago when founder William Watkins' ancestors started farming the land where he would later start the Radnor Hills business. 

It is a business very much rooted in both family and place. Our brand is all about the purity and quality of the Welsh water we source.

William founded Radnor Hills Mineral Water Company as a diversification from his family farming business. The company now employs 180 people and has nine production lines bottling a vast range of soft drinks into glass and plastic bottles, tetra cartons and cans.

It was a modest start – just one small cupping line, adapted from a yoghurt-filling production line. But with some help from Welsh Government funding, it's been built into the company it is today, with profit reinvested into capital improvements and technology.

We had a massive boost early on in the history of the company when McDonald's UK became one of our first customers. It was a partnership which lasted for more than ten years and brought with it security and the confidence to expand. Then came new opportunities. We were able to spot opportunities in the market and added to our stable of products with soft drinks.

We now export to overseas markets too and have plans to grow that part of the business. And we have supply contracts with big-name supermarkets, including Morrisons, Co-op, Sainsbury's and Aldi, producing own-label soft drinks. These drinks now account for 50% of the company's turnover.

We've just added Tetra packaging and canning, and have secured a second site at Presteigne, near our headquarters, which we want to develop into another production area.

It's incredible to think all this started on a family farm.

What are your proudest moments in business so far?
We've won plenty of awards for our service, for the quality of our products, training and apprenticeship programmes and innovation – to name but a few. But the most exciting of all was the Queen's Award for Enterprise for export sales.

It's not just winning awards that make us proud. The workforce shares a sense of pride and excitement every time we open a new production line.

If you were starting again, what would you do differently?
There have been lots of setbacks, like any company as it develops! There was the energy drink, Red Dragon, which went a brownish colour after a few months of first development and wasn't quite so appealing. And then the rhubarb and custard flavour and blue bubblegum flavour kids' drinks, which weren't big hits – especially with complaints that the blue bubblegum flavour tended to stain carpets!

But there have been few regrets along the way. Many of our challenges have come from elements beyond our control, such as exchange rate movements and changes in legislation, which have affected competitors as well.

 How has support from Business Wales AGP helped your business?
We have had plenty of help from the Welsh Government over the years, with funding for capital investment, innovation and technical processes, overseas business trips, trade missions, tradeshows and export trade shows. Through Business Wales AGP, we have benefited from management coaching, workshops, marketing training and assistance as well as business mentoring.

This help has been an essential factor in our growth from a business start-up, as we have grown from three staff to 180. This support has resulted in a varied and diverse range of soft drinks suiting every sector of the soft drinks market all using one key ingredient - pure Welsh spring water.

What advice and guidance would you give other businesses starting out?

● Never stand still.

● Never stop innovating.

● Take progress one step at a time, never run before you can walk.

● Seek and follow advice from professionals who know what they are doing. Join an industry cluster and listen to what others in your industry have to say, they have a wealth of knowledge to share.

● Take advantage of the varied help which is available to you from the Welsh Government.

For more information on Radnor Hills, visit here.

Further information on the Business Wales Accelerated Growth Programme

The business partners who went from staff to owners after a management buyout

"We have found the support and advice of our Business Wales AGP coach invaluable over the last five years."

Entrepreneurship is not just about starting a new business. Sometimes, it can be about taking over a company you already work in and taking it on a new journey.

Management buyouts (MBO) are one way to unlock untapped skills and expertise within a company to help fulfil commercial potential. For Vikki Byrne and Lydia Owen, their management buyout of OSP Healthcare has been an exciting challenge.

Here, the business partners tell the story of OSP Healthcare and what motivated them to lead the company into a new era.

Tell us about OSP Healthcare.
Lydia: We're an independent, creative medical communications agency, with a design studio, digital team and production crew all under one roof.

Founded in Cardiff in 1993, OSP has operated in the healthcare, life sciences, pharmaceutical, medical devices and biotech sectors and has delivered creative projects for some of the best-known brands in the world. 

We develop and produce award-winning tools, events and experiences to help health-focused companies and organisations stimulate conversation, provide information and encourage education. Our client services span branding, campaigns, copywriting, design, digital, eLearning, events, exhibitions, experiential, film and animation, and presentations.

We're now based in Chepstow. Vikki and I have led our seven-strong team since 2015, when we undertook the management buyout and acquired the company, and its parent company, On Screen Productions, from the founding owners. It was a huge step but a really exciting one for us both.

Our career background is in the media, so we have lots of experience and expertise.

I started my career in journalism and joined OSP's Production Team in 2008 to manage the company's exhibition projects and bolster the in-house copywriting team. Since then, I've crafted copy for some of the world's biggest names in healthcare and pharmaceuticals. Nothing leaves OSP's HQ without my stamp of approval!

Vikki is our creative director and has a background in digital design (way before that was even a 'thing'). She's an ex-BBC designer and has led our team of creatives for the last 12 years, developing multi-channel projects that deliver clear and impactful messages for our global client base. She's a self-confessed creative, through and through, and is never afraid to challenge the 'norm'.

We both work closely with our business manager, Lisa Rennison, to run and grow the company – and we have big plans for the future. 

Since we took over OSP, we've continued to win business from existing clients, while fostering new relationships with new companies and partner agencies. We've pivoted our offering to promote our in-house design and copywriting skills, and we now deliver a range of projects for several UK-based and global pharmaceutical and non-healthcare brands that we had never worked with before the MBO.

It's been a fantastic experience, equally fulfilling and rewarding.

 What are your proudest moments in business so far?
Lydia: I'm hoping there will be more proud moments to come but my proudest moment is when I found out we'd won our first big exhibition client after spending 18 months focused on trying to win work in this service area. 

I was on my way to a meeting and can remember exactly where I was standing in Cardiff city centre when the client called me to tell me we'd won the contract to deliver the first of many exhibition projects for him. As soon as that call ended, I rang the office — hardly able to speak — and our business manager gathered everyone around the phone so that I could deliver the good news. I can remember being close to tears listening to how excited everyone was that all of our collective work had come to fruition. It really is a team effort at OSP.

Vikki: I'm proud of our company and, more importantly, our team most days! Both Lydia and I feel incredibly lucky to have such a loyal, committed, diligent and creative bunch of people working alongside us. Most of our projects require the skills of each team member individually, and it's when we work together as a team that I think we produce our most impressive work.

I'm also proud of the fact that we're a small boutique agency based in Wales regularly commissioned to deliver creative projects for huge companies from all over the world. We have recently been working on company-wide presentations for C-suite execs at Johnson & Johnson. Working for people at this level within a company of that size makes us proud. When they thank us for our work, we get an even bigger boost!

If you were starting again, what would you do differently?
Lydia: Given our chance again, I think we should have employed a couple of experienced, senior staff as soon as we'd undertaken the MBO and tasked these members of the team with offering our clients director level advice. This would have given Vikki and I the breathing space to consider the strategic direction of the business, as we've been consumed with managing projects on a day-to-day basis. This is something we're still actively looking to resolve.

In the early days, we lost out on a big project because a competitor came in at a significantly lower budget than we did. In hindsight, we should have been more flexible on price as winning that contract would have guaranteed us a long pipeline of work. This would have taken the financial pressure off and would have also allowed us to upsell other services to that same client — generating even more sales.

Vikki: Even though we're marketing specialists, it's much easier for us to offer advice to clients than it is for us to look inwards at our marketing efforts — client work always takes precedence. The majority of our work comes from word of mouth recommendations and, while this is positive, I think we could have done more to advertise our services through On Screen Productions, the non-medical part of our business when we took over. 

Also, I would have invested more time at the outset nurturing relationships with those who hold the purse strings within the procurement departments of our biggest clients. We've learned that you can have a brilliant relationship with a global marketing director but still find it challenging to expand your offering within a large company. 

How has support from Business Wales AGP helped your business?
We became a member of Business Wales AGP in 2015 and were assigned Joff Pope as our relationship manager.

We've found Joff's support and advice invaluable over the last five years and count him as one of our trusted advisors, often calling on him for guidance with business decisions.

Two of our team members have been on a Business Wales social media marketing course in 2019. 

We've also attended a workshop on team management, and have taken part in several Business Wales AGP organised webinars related to business management post-lockdown.

What advice and guidance would you give other businesses starting out?

Lydia:  

● Surround yourself with experts. We have a few trusted advisors (including our AGP Relationship Manager) whose background and experience, both within our industry and outside of it, means that they serve as great sounding boards when we find ourselves facing challenges we're unsure how to tackle.

● Hire for attitude, train for skill. There are ways and means of training and upskilling your team to ensure they can excel in their roles, but the one thing you can't teach is attitude. 

● Don't procrastinate: I've learned (through bitter experience) that when I procrastinate things tend not to pan out well. So I try not to put off until tomorrow what I can do today.

Vikki: 

● Be aware of Imposter Syndrome. This is something we both suffer with, and we're aware that self-doubt can debilitate you if you let it take hold. Remember, confidence is vital. We need to remind ourselves of the value we provide, both individually and as part of a team. Own your accomplishments, but...

● Don't pretend you know something you don't. I've found that it's always better to say, 'I'll get back to you', or admit that something isn't your specialism than try – and fail – to bluster your way through a situation! 

● Develop a set of marketing materials you're proud of. Of course, we're bound to say this, but I genuinely believe that if you have pre-approved sales materials for every service you offer you will save time in the long run — and present a far more polished brand to your stakeholders. 

For more information on OSP Healthcare, visit here.

Further information on the Business Wales Accelerated Growth Programme