Hot 100 2013 – 36: Longfield Chemicals

The basics

Company name: Longfield Chemicals
What they do: Plastics distributor
Headquarters: Runcorn
The Boss: Stuart Forsyth and Mark Pepper

The financials

Latest turnover (£,000): 70,406
Four-year compound sales growth (%): 38
Latest Ebitda (£,000): 2,172

The details

Following another strong year, Longfield Chemicals re-appears in the Hot 100. Turnover grew by nearly £20m in the last year to just over £70m, as the business continues to dominate the plastic polymers market.

Established in 1968, this privately-owned business is one of the UK’s largest and longest-established distributors and traders of plastic raw materials, handling around 70,000 tonnes per year. It covers Western Europe from its Cheshire head office and via agents based in the Czech Republic and Croatia.

Although operating in a volatile environment – the cost of raw materials can swing up and down very quickly – co-owners Stuart Forsyth and Mark Pepper say the company is small enough to react to changes swiftly enough to mitigate any real risk.

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