The Swift Group were presented with the award for Growth Strategy of the Year at the prestigious 2004 National Business Awards, held at a glittering awards ceremony in London's Grosvenor House Hotel on November 9th.
Referred to as "the UK's business Oscars" by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the National Business Awards recognise and reward excellence, best practice and performance across a wealth of business categories on a national and regional scale.
When judging the growth strategy award, judges were looking for the organisation "which best demonstrated an organic growth strategy, achieving outstanding levels of sales, profit and market share improvement."
The company, which as recently as 1992 operated as a single-brand business making fewer than 1,000 vehicles with a turnover of £15m, has grown to encompass six brands (Swift, Abbey, Ace, Bessacarr, Sprite and Sterling), 15,000 vehicles and a projected turnover of £175m per annum. The caravan and motorhome market has grown rapidly since 2001 and Swift's modernisation, market research and major investment in technology and new plant has helped it keep pace with market trends and growing demand.
Swift have been keenly involved in running market research and customer satisfaction surveys for the past six years to gain a sense of what people want from their leisure vehicle.
"Any business needs to know where it's not performing well, because that's where it needs to focus its resources," says Joe Anwyll, Swift group Managing Director.
Swift has focused on customer service where the company now operates the most sophisticated dealer-support service in the industry allowing dealers to complete warranty claims, order parts and check availability online.
Their supply chain has also been overhauled by quality-inspecting all suppliers. Heavy investment in manufacturing technology has also paid dividends enabling productivity to be increased by over 50pc in five years with 24-hour production in some departments involving computerised machines.
"The result is a better engineered product, easier to assemble to a higher quality and making possible a wider range of products. We've moved from a virtual cottage industry to employing over a thousand people, so we've had to completely review the way we operated and the way we were managed," commented Mr Anwyll.
In addition to the National Growth Strategy of the Year Award, the Swift Group was also awarded the Business of the Year Award for the North East Region.
IMAGE : Joe Anwyll, Swift Group Managing Director, receives the Growth Strategy of the Year Award from Rob Anderson of Edengene - the category Sponsor