Overseas success fueling business’s exciting growth

The company has enjoyed considerable business growth in its home market in the past 3-4 years, but as Executive Chairman, Graeme Hall, told HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, it is also seeing increasing international sales success, installing a variety of theatre and ICU equipment in locations as diverse as an African polyclinic, and even a new hospital for treating camels in Dubai.

Graeme Hall began our discussions at Brandon’s Leeds headquarters by explaining that as part of the company’s recent growth strategy – the business has now been operating for 25 years under he and his brother’s management – it had been decided it needed ‘to create some space to follow up on the major growth opportunities’. He expanded: “We have thus recently recruited a new CEO, Keith Jackson, to allow more time for my brother, Adrian, and I to develop our strategy, and to build on our export business in particular. Keith was formerly the CEO at JRI Orthopaedics in Sheffield, a manufacturer of prosthetic hips and knees. We have known each other for some time; he and I, for instance, served on the Medilink Board for eight years together. Originally a design engineer with Jaguar Cars, Keith Jackson moved to JRI Orthopaedics as a senior design engineer, became Technical director pretty quickly, then Sales director, and thereafter CEO. Keith joined us in early July this year. A highly professional business leader with a reputation for transforming business, he was an Institute of Directors UK ‘Director of the Year’ in 2016, and has been the IoD’s South Yorkshire Chairman for a number of years. We are currently in transition in taking the business from small to medium-sized. Keith Jackson has already been through that process, so his role here will include building better company systems into our business, and supporting us as we focus on the growth opportunities.”

Sales into Africa