Teesside Business Executive of the Year
Winner: Stewart Smith, executive chairman and owner, Ramsdens Financial Ltd, Middlesbrough
STEWART has had full charge since 1994 of the firm his father set up in 1950, and for 20 years before ran it in partnership with his brother.
The company’s roots are in check-trading, but today it is a specialist diversified in consumer finance activity. Stewart has developed the once home-run business into a national organisation of more than 60 branches making it the UK’s largest independent pawnbroker.
As business developed, it diversified early on into Christmas hampers. It has pioneered foreign currency as a mass market product within its sector, has pioneered also the first online gold-buying website in the UK, backed by TV advertising, and has engaged both as franchisee and franchisor.
In 2009 it acquired the Scottish firm Symingtons and is thus remarkably transformed. This year it is opening 30 more branches.
Stewart, born and bred in Middlesbrough, is married with one son.
Runners-up:
Vikki Jackson-Smith, managing director, J&B Recycling Ltd, Hartlepool
VIKKI has transformed a traditional family business based on a former staple, coal, into a leader in recycling.
Alcopops gave her the inspiration when she took over her father’s solid fuels business in the late 1990s.
She realised their bottles were non-returnable and, like coal, had to be washed, graded and separated.
And, with a little entrepreneurial nous and a lot of hard work, the firm became one of the first recyclers of plastic bottles.
When the Government gave councils green targets, J&B quickly built a portfolio of clients and now collects 50,000 tonnes of discarded items yearly.
Unlike other waste companies set on disposal, J&B identified waste as a resource. It now provides kerbside and collection recycling services to public and private sector clients.
This has not only safeguarded 20 jobs but created twice as many again. Employee development and recruitment of managers is further advancing the firm.
Vikki is married with two children and actively involved in community life.
Mike Matthews, managing director, Nifco UK Ltd, Stockton
MIKE is the only non-Japanese senior executive in a Japanese global organisation that employs 5,500 people.
Born and raised in Darlington and a time-served toolmaker, he has worked his way up from the shopfloor.
With his collaborative style of management, he has recently steered the car parts manufacturing business through some of the toughest times for the automotives industry.
The firm makes plastic parts for the likes of Ford, Nissan, Honda, Toyota and Sony on a site which opened in 1967 and was taken over by Nifco from Elta Plastics in 1990.
Over the last two years the multi award- winning firm has secured more than £14m worth of new business. Success in the firm’s fightback has led to a second site, an £8m investment, which could create 40 new jobs. Mike is married with two daughters.