Good chemistry keeps business on right path

Apr 3 2010 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

NORTH East entrepreneurs James Robson and Phil Cambers chat about the challenges and rewards of being an entrepreneur in our Head to Head feature.

ENTREPRENEUR James Robson runs and owns Exwold, a chemical company which specialises in manufacturing chemicals internationally for crop production.

Based in Hartlepool, Exwold handles about £5m of work each year producing up to 100 chemical products worth over £45m in sales to its 25 or so major customers across the globe, predominantly in Europe.

After graduating as a mining engineer from Leeds University, James began his career in the chemical industry selling chemicals to the mining and other process industries for over nine years.

Whilst working in this field, James struck up relationships with some key contacts and before he left, asked for a supplier agreement which was the first of its kind in the European market.

After 17 years of trading, Exwold is now looking to double sales in the next five years as it expands into new types of granule processing at its Hartlepool factory whilst expanding overseas markets in countries like Brazil and India.

Phil Cambers is one of four partners of SITS Group, a consultancy-led organisation that helps clients to design and implement IT solutions based on reducing the size, cost and administrative overheads of existing server and desktop infrastructures.

A Leeds University graduate, Phil ‘fell’ into IT, originally taking a job as a short-term solution to his career search in media.

After discovering a keen interest in the technology world, Phil decided to remain in IT, managing a team of field-based engineers.

Wanting to concentrate on a specialist area, his interest grew in virtualisation, which he discovered was an untapped market in the North.

Doubling its staff within its first year, SITS Group is growing steadily as a new business and was recently named at The Journal-sponsored nebusiness Awards as Tyneside & Northumberland’s Best Newcomer.

Head to Head is run in conjunction with The Entrepreneurs’ Forum – a membership organisation that brings together business owners to share experiences, knowledge and support. The Forum runs events throughout the year around the region. They also run a mentoring programme to help people running growth businesses benefit from the wisdom of more established entrepreneurs.

For more information, go to www.entrepreneursforum.net.