An award-winning business management graduate is celebrating 10 years in business, after taking her parents’ company to new heights.
Laura Flood, 29, began working in the equine laundry her parents owned at the age of 18 and was key to diversifying the business, eventually setting up C&A Embroidery and Print.
The company offers embroidered and printed clothing such as workwear, school uniform and sportswear – anything that needs company logos embroidered or printed on.
Laura, director of C&A, explains how the business idea developed when customers of her parents’ equine laundry, which was established in 2007, started asking whether they could embroider horse rugs.
Laura began working in the company in 2012, helping to take this new business opportunity forward and after completing her business management degree, she moved to a unit in Newton Aycliffe in 2018.
“When my parents had the laundry, it was mainly equine clothing we embroidered,” explains Laura.
“Now, it’s workwear, sportwear and that kind of thing, our main focus is on the commercial sector”
Laura has already enjoyed ten successful years in business, during which she won Small Business of the Year at the 2022 Make Your Mark Awards – something she describes as a “good surprise”.
Under Laura’s leadership, C&A Embroidery and Print also thrived during the coronavirus pandemic.
“My business wasn’t affected by Covid, in fact 2020 was our busiest year to date,” Laura says.
“We were working with businesses that still required all their uniform, such as construction businesses, engineering companies, manufacturing companies and healthcare organisations.
“They all still needed branded workwear supplying because they were all the keyworkers.”
This year, Laura saw a 100 per cent increase in orders and is on target for another 50 per cent increase by 2023.
After taking on her first member of staff in 2019, staff numbers are now up to three, with firm plans to take on another member of staff over the next year.
As a proud tenant on Aycliffe Business Park, Laura has a number of contracts with her neighbours and already supplies workwear to Contego, Finley Structures, Cobots Online and Collins Seafoods.
“We also started doing work for Cleveland Containers this year,” Laura says.
“They are a big company in Stockton so we were pleased to be working with companies like this.
“We’re trying to work with more clients on the business park and want to raise more awareness of our business amongst our neighbours.
“Everyone has uniforms, so if we can help you with your workwear needs, get in touch.”
This year, C&A also started providing Greenfield Community College in Newton Aycliffe with their school uniform and the company is looking to expand into the provision of more branded school uniform locally.
“We had a good response from parents saying it was good to be able to actually come in and try different sizes on,” Laura says.
“It can be a bit more of a hassle if the companies supplying the uniforms are out of the area.”
Laura’s proactive approach to marketing has also seen her attend the Emcon engineering and manufacturing show at the Glow Centre two years running, something she describes as having been a huge success for the firm.
“We’ve got a few more clients in the pipeline from it,” says Laura.
Looking ahead, Laura is excited to see what the future holds for C&A Embroidery and Print – and is certainly putting the dissertation she completed on growing a business as part of her degree to good use!
She says: “The last few years have been a real success and we are optimistic about what the future holds for the business.
“I’m looking forward to building on what we’ve already achieved in taking the business forward.”
Find out more at caembroidery.co.uk.
