A Gloucestershire hot sauces and seasonings business is eyeing further growth after serving up a tenfold surge in production in four years.
Forest of Dean-based entrepreneur Tom Hughes has grown his company Tubby Tom’s from a solo operation to a six-strong workforce, making 70 different products in a new industrial unit.
In that time the business has upscaled production from 13,000 bottles a year to 166,000 for a growing network of commercial retailers and wholesalers.
The firm said its relocation to its current hub in December 2018 allowed it to centralise its operations, with its now bottling more than 22,000 litres of extra sauce per annum in a specially designed kitchen.
Mr Hughes said the business was hoping to move again within the next four years to a new kitchen three times the size, currently being built in a unit adjacent to its current base.
Mr Hughes said: “This will hopefully make us even more efficient, and as well as the new kitchen, we want to have more people working in it — adding to the already amazing team we have here.
“The key for us is to ensure that everything we produce still remains of the highest quality as our consistency and unique flavours are what really makes us stand out in a competitive market.”
Over the past four years Mr Hughes has grown the brand’s social media presence and held pop-up events, while the business has also been receiving support from Gloucestershire business support programme The Growth Hub.
The Growth Hub said it had helped the company develop contacts and encouraged it to streamline its production, considering everything from exports to external funding.
Andy Kime, business guide at The Growth Hub, said Mr Hughes was a “glowing example” of how to turn ambition into success.
Mr Kime said: “ When we put a plan in place four years ago, Tom was at a point where he was looking to get serious and we were able to pull a strategy together that gave him some defined markers to push for in regards to turnover, profit, products and everything in between.
“Tom took this plan, stuck with it and has smashed every target we set out in 2018 — which is a true testament to his passion and commitment to the business.”
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