Meet the family-owned firm that is flushed with success

In the latest edition of Marketing Derby’s Innovate Magazine, we meet the founder of award-winning water conservation and washroom services specialists HSG UK.

Last year, the Pride Park based company was named as a recipient of The King’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation – regarded as the highest accolade a business can receive.

It was the second time this family-owned business had received the honour.

HSG UK originally won The Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation in 2018 for its market-leading Ureco System, comprised of the Ureco urinal sleeve and Uretech water management system.

The Ureco System works to save water and money while improving the washrooms by eliminating smells and preventing urinal blockages.

Every year, the Ureco System saves over a billion litres of water, which equates to 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools, across its customer sites, which include Tesco, Toyota Manufacturing UK, NEC, Pizza Hut, All England Lawn Tennis Club, Aston Martin and more than 100 NHS sites.

In the latest edition, Innovate catches up with Simon Rice, founder and managing director at HSG UK, to talk about his firm’s phenomenal success.

Simon explains the firm’s journey, from humble beginnings in a lock-up garage to a company worthy of carrying the King’s Award emblem.

He told Innovate: “The award is seen as the highest accolade a business can win in the UK. So, if you’re going to go for an award, why not have the best one?

“It’s brilliant in terms of how the company is perceived, both locally and nationally, but also in terms of how it makes the staff feel.

“It’s a real shot in the arm for everybody to know that they’re part of a company which holds such an award.”

According to Simon, HSG UK’s success is built on having a great team of people around him – which includes members of his family, with his wife Lou, sons Tom and Joe and dad Geoff all involved in the business.

He told Innovate: “I have an awesome family. They’re absolutely brilliant.

“My wife is so supportive. I look back at the early days and what we went through at the time – I remortgaged the house and we lived on credit cards for 12 months. It could have gone so badly wrong. But she dealt with all of it. She’s incredible.

“My dad, who is 75 this year, is in with us three days a week in the stores, which is just great.

“And I’m proud that we’ve built something that our boys are now invested in as well. They absolutely get it and fully understand the importance of it.”

To read the feature in full visit https://heyzine.com/flip-book/4f1b03a082.html#page/44.