ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk
As soon as you start speaking to Debbie and Rod Heald, it’s immediately clear that they take great pride in their work. Debbie is managing director of Yorkshire-based Heald, which makes barriers, bollards and other security devices for stopping vehicles from attacking parliament buildings, palaces and other sensitive areas throughout the world, while Rod is the company’s founder and has the rather nifty job title of ‘inventor’. “We don’t go in for fancy job titles here,” laughs Debbie. “We’re the type of company where everyone mucks in to get the job done.” As well as being business partners, Debbie and Rod are also married. Heald was founded in 1986 as a general engineering business. Debbie and Rod met in 1994 and, six months later, Debbie took voluntary redundancy from her job at a local council and bought a 50% stake in the company. Since then the firm has gone from strength to strength, growing its turnover from around £70,000 to £3m, with Debbie aiming to hit £10m within the next three years. The business now employs nearly 40 staff at its base in Hornsea and the Healds are very proud of creating rural jobs. “We’re a close-knit team,” says Debbie. “We’re one of the biggest employers in our local area.” The firm’s new website proudly displays its ‘Made in Britain’ marque, a new accreditation awarded in January to recognise the provenance of its home-grown products. “We also manufacture under licence in the United States and we have distributors overseas, so our reach is much wider than just our staff at our head office,” Debbie says. “When I joined the business, Heald wasn’t involved in security products,” she explains. “The first customer that came to us to ask about security products had bought a road-blocker in the United States, but it kept breaking and so he asked Rod to take a look at it. “Rod isn’t the kind of guy who will just copy someone else’s design, so instead he took a look at the road-blocker and then designed his own, improved version. After that, we had
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