Oct 2005

Embedding a new culture in a long-established business is hard, even when there’s no real pushback. Three years after his MBO at Amberley Labels of Blandford, Dorset, Trevor Smith talks to John O’Hanlon in the very week the company goes lean

Amberley Labels was founded 25 years ago by Chris Strong, who installed a single machine in his garage and then grew his creation like a true entrepreneur.

Trevor Smith has been with the company over an 18 year period, latterly as works manager, and in 2002 he led a team of four in a management buyout (MBO) funded by the company’s existing banker and, unusually, by his former employer, who continues to take a benign interest. In a sense this was the very model of transition from a company led from the top to a business run on consensus.

Over the years Amberley has firmly entrenched itself in its niche as a supplier of high quality decorative labels. Wasn’t Liz Hurley the Face of Estée Lauder? But Estée Lauder’s real ‘face’ is the label on the jar, and when you are looking at the rows of top class toiletries its a gallery for Amberley Labels.

Published in The Manufacturer Oct 2005 (Vol 8, Issue 10) Page 130
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