History & Heraldry, the Rotherham-based impulse-buy gift business has been named amongst Britain's top 200 mid-market private companies with the fastest-growing international sales.
The Hellaby company was ranked at 97th in the Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 league table which ranks firms with over £25m in total sales based on their growth in international sales over the last two years of available data.
The league table reflects the importance of Europe to Britain's mid-market exporters ahead of the Brexit negotiations. Almost 85% of the companies (167) sell to the continent, the most popular market, followed by North America (112) and Asia (75). It is sponsored by HSBC and DHL Express, and compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based research and networking events firm.
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History & Heraldry was started in 1994 by Malcolm Ogg and Diane Clothier in their kitchen, making coat-of-arms keyrings for common surnames. With the global headquarters and design centre in Rotherham and operations in Estonia, the US and China, it now employs 191 staff and has expanded its range to include a children's division which supplies the high street, toy and tourist destinations with kids' personalised gift lines.
The company also operates the Paper Island brand in the card and gift sectors and holds the UK license for Hallmark fragrances. Supplying 70,000 retal sites worldwide, overseas retail outlets include Monoprix and Toys R Us.
Demand for its range of scented candles has helped to boost exports as the company continues to focus on designing new products and helping retailers through a custom built stock management system.
Now selling to 70 countries, the league table shows that the firm reported that international sales accounted for £20.6m of its total £29.6m in sales for the year ending December 2016. The annual international sales growth over the two years was an impressive 42%.
Amanda Murphy, UK head of commercial banking at HSBC, said: "This year's Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 is testament to the exciting opportunities available to ambitious UK businesses with appetite to grow their goods and services abroad. The ten companies in Yorkshire are putting the region firmly on the map as a thriving business hub. We work very closely with our business customers to help them achieve their goals, so it makes me immensely proud to see so many of them succeed."
History & Heraldry, the Rotherham-based impulse-buy gift business has been named amongst Britain's 100 private companies with the fastest-growing profits.
The Hellaby company has been ranked at number 38 in the Sunday Times Profit Track 100 with an impressive annual profit growth of 73.67% over three years.
The annual league table, sponsored by PwC, ranks Britain's 100 private companies with the fastest-growing profits and uses the growth in profits over the last three years of latest available audited accounts. The 100 companies show an average profit growth of 70% and combined profits of £1.2 billion.
History & Heraldry was started in 1994 by Malcolm Ogg and Diane Clothier in their kitchen, making coat-of-arms keyrings for common surnames. The company now employs 77 staff at their Rotherham headquarters.
Customers include visitor attractions, garden centres and gift shops and the company now sells its merchandise worldwide and its products have been translated into 30 languages.
Gifts include keyrings, mugs and fridge magnets with people's names, catchphrases or sentiments on them and last year, 40 million items were sold, with most of the revenue generated in mainland Europe.
A move to replace third-party distributors with its own operations has helped profits to grow by 74% a year from £1.4m in 2007 to £7.4m in 2010.
The couple also own Paper Island, a successful greeting card company with a turnover of £8.3m.
Arif Ahmad, partner and head of private business in Yorkshire for PwC, said: "It's great to see these local privately-owned companies delivering sustained profit growth and making such a positive contribution to the economy.
"These companies show how private businesses and their owners can help drive regional economic growth and development in Yorkshire."
