New CEO's vision for further growth at James Briggs

James Briggs' new CEO Paul Blackaby

James Briggs Limited, one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of speciality industrial and consumer chemicals, has appointed Paul Blackaby as Chief Executive Officer.

Paul, aged 52, has been promoted from his previous role as Chief Financial Officer, which he held for the last three years.

He succeeds Tim Pugh, who after three years with the business has stepped down to pursue other potential opportunities that are closer to his home and family.

Founded in the North West in 1830 at the height of the industrial revolution, James Briggs has built an excellent reputation as a service led, industrial aerosol manufacturer, specialising in the supply of paints and lubricants for retail, consumer and trade markets.

The £50m turnover business has 300 skilled and loyal employees dedicated to providing the highest levels of service excellence and technical expertise to its customers.

Setting out his vision for the business, Blackaby said, “I am thrilled and proud to be given the opportunity to lead this magnificent company in the next stage of its development.

“There is excellent potential to grow our sales in the UK and further afield in Europe and the Middle East in particular, and we will of course continue to work with our existing valued customers to continue to develop innovative new products.

“We are a fortunate to operate in a target-rich environment and have all we need to be a success; great customers, fantastic facilities,  a strong management team and hugely dedicated employees.

“We are also fortunate to have the backing of Endless, an excellent private equity investor, who have been massively supportive over the last few years.

 “I am really excited to lead this talented team into a new era and am optimistic for the future as we seek to continue to grow the business in existing and new markets.”

James Briggs operates from two manufacturing sites in the Oldham area and currently manufactures 50 million aerosols per annum.

It is a trusted custodian of customer brands and is committed to working collaboratively with these customers to create bespoke products through ongoing, in-house research and development.

James Briggs is backed by the transformational private equity investor, Endless LLP.

Blackaby is a former CFO at Entertainment Magpie, the leading recommerce site.

Prior to this he worked for some of the world’s largest chemical businesses including Ecolab, the $14bn revenue group, and Laporte plc, the UK speciality chemicals group.

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