JPL Flavours develop and manufacture flavours, specialising in alcoholic, soft drinks and flavour profile boosters.
Based in The Wirral, the business was established by Flavourist Jake Lavelle and starting trading in March 2016. Jake has extensive product & development knowledge and the business was employing seven people.
The Challenge
According to Jake; “We were performing well, but for the business to grow we needed to start working with large food and drinks manufacturers. Despite liking our product this proved impossible because we weren’t accredited to the right standard.”
Food and Drink is the largest manufacturing industry in the UK and Jake knew from his previous experience in the sector that accessing the major end users and high end supply chains was essential for the business to grow.
“We needed British Retail Consortium (BRC) accreditation, but the cost to achieve this was prohibitive, which was when we heard about the Manufacturing Growth Fund.”
The Manufacturing Growth Fund offers grant funding to increase the productivity of small and medium manufacturing enterprises in the North West of England. Phil Anders is a specialist Manufacturing Advisor in Liverpool City Region and he met with Jake to understand JPL Flavours’ growth plans.
“JPL Flavours had made brilliant strides in their short time operating and they were already working to a high standard. It was clear from meeting Jake and the team that they had ambitions to grow the business and they were prepared to work hard to achieve this.”
Jake said; “It was really helpful to speak to an expert about our plans. The BRC accreditation was a large investment, and it was important to consider the risks before implementing this. Phil reassured me that it was the right decision when we analysed the new markets it would open up and jobs it would create in the business.”
The Solution
Together Jake and Phil devised a consultancy project, of which 30% of the cost would be grant funded by the Manufacturing Growth Fund.
Phil said; “The move to new standards is a major step change for JPL Flavours, but it won’t begin and end in achieving the accreditation. The business needs to undertake a full a review of existing work practices, change processes and procedures and transfer that knowledge throughout the workforce to ensure consistency across the board. They must strive for operational excellence to win the best contracts.”
Jake procured the services of a consultant who specialised in quality systems and BRC accreditation to deliver the project, and over a three month period the business implemented new processes, upskilled the workforce and identified new equipment to improve productivity.
“We achieved BRC accreditation in April 2017. Since then we have started supplying five large food and drink manufacturers and taken on two more employees to help us meet demand, including an accounts officer to manage the increased volume of invoices we have to manage!
“By handing over some of the day-to-day aspects of running the business my time has been freed up to focus on what I’m passionate about - flavour development and winning new business.”
The future
Accessing grant funding has clearly made a huge impact to the future growth of JPL Flavours.
“The Manufacturing Growth Fund has enabled us to make a huge leap forward, it is the best thing we could have done for the business. I’m due to start recruiting for a new Flavourist to increase our range, which will only see us grow further.
“My advice to any manufacturing businesses is to find out how the Manufacturing Growth Fund can help your operation – you’d be mad not to!”
