Shropshire business award-winner's drive for higher standards

The company won two trophies, including the blue riband Company of the Year Award and the Mannaging Change Award, at Friday night's Shropshire Business Awards.

Speaking afterwards, company director Edward Grainger said that the growth which has seen the Bridgnorth-based company double its turnover to £40 million and its staff to 500 in the last five years will see a sharp uplift in performance in the next half-decade.

It was a case of better late than never as world-famous supermodel Caprice took to the stage at Telford's International Centre.

After being booked to speak to business owners at last year's Shropshire Business Awards, the model-turned entrepreneur found herself stranded Stateside while she waited for her children's visas to come through.

There was no such problem this time out though, and dressed in a thigh length white dress, the 43-year-old Californian took to the stage to rapturous applause from the 640 businesspeople gathered at the conference centre.

"I'm here this year, and I'm so excited," she said ahead of a whistelstop tour of her life and career. "Thank you for forgiving me. It's beautiful here – there's so much grass."

She explained how her two careers had developed, and how she entered a new life as an entrepreneur, and some of the challenges she had faced – including losing £1.6 million overnight as a result of rapidly fluctuating currencies during the financial crisis.

She also explained the difficulties she had faced in being accepted in the business world thanks to her modelling background.

Caprice left with this advice for the entrepreneurs in the crowd: "The harder you work, the luckier you get.

"I don't believe in luck, you have to work hard for it, you have to have tenacity and passion, you have to understand your business, you have to know if the demand is there for what you want to start up. You just have to keep going."

While she's certainly no stranger to the camera lens, Caprice was inundated with requests for selfies from the star-struck businesspeople in the room, and greeted each with a smile.

The appearance of the supermodel was part of the social side of an evening of celebration, which also included a red and yellow card game which raised more than £4,000 for Severn Hospice.

That game ended with the final few participants called to the stage in a bid to win £250 – and to strut their stuff on the catwalk to impress the supermodel in the room.

Friday's gala awards event concluded with a casino, games, and a disco in the Ludlow Suite at the centre.

"We have been putting back into the business at a rate of around 10 per cent a year in terms of investment. That equates over five years to around £3 million per year, and this year it's just short of £5 million.

"We think we can aspire to be a £70 million company.

"What we have to do is to look at our productivity. It's not just about employing more and more people, but growing our own specialist staff."

Grainger & Worrall now has two plants in the county, one on the Stanmore Industrial Estate in its home town of Bridgnorth, and another on the Stafford Park estate in Telford. The company supplies castings to the elite teams in the world of motorsport, including those on the Formula 1 grid, and is increasingly providing products for the aerospace sector as it grows its sales in various markets.

The company is also looking to meet the demands of high-end manufacturing and developing the workforce that it has put in place in recent years. That includes taking workers to see top-end manufacturers in action as part of a skills exchange scheme, and offering employees the chance to build their skill set, regardless of their seniority within the business.

"As a business we are operating at the highest level," said Mr Grainger of the family owned business, which was picking up the top prize at the annual gala awards dinner for the first time.

"We operate with F1, and OEM manufacturers. We are diversifying into aerospace and defence.

"It's not necessarily all about new markets, but we have considered the scope and the scale. It's not just developing one thing, it's moving across, and we have moved at both ends of the value chain and expanded our capability."

He added: "Being a family business, we are not looking at the short term, we are looking at the long term.

"We have created more than 250 jobs in the last five years. That rate of growth would be super if it continued, but in reality we have to really develop those people that we have.

"That will bring in other opportunities.

"Guys who have been around the business, we are taking them forward and developing them, and that runs alongside our apprentices programme. The important thing for us is not just apprenticeships finishing, we have to push those guys, push the limit and ensure there is no glass ceiling."

The manufacturer was the big winner on a glittering night of celebration for Shropshire businesses.

Guest speaker Caprice leant star quality to the proceedings at Telford's International Centre, while companies from various sectors were hailed at the event, attended by 640 people.