Crisp firm Seabrook battles back into the black

02-Jul-2013 - Last updated on 19-Aug-2020 at 08:35 GMT

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Bye shared his strategy for growing Seabrook Crisps over the next few years

Seabrook Crisps is edging back into the black after what its chief executive conceded had been a testing two years.

While the business is likely to post a slight loss for the year to April 2013, Jonathan Bye revealed in this exclusive podcast that the firm had made a profit for the last four months.

Bye was given the top job last May after the Bradford-based family firm posted losses of £1.8M amid plummeting sales stemming from a promotional strategy its own directors dubbed “not sustainable”.

Listen to the podcast to hear Bye discuss what state the business was in when he joined and why, after several years of steady growth, the wheels had well and truly come off.

Major decisions

He also shared his strategy for growing the business over the next few years and revealed some of the major decisions he had to take to get it back on track.

In his 16 months at the helm, Bye has overseen a full-scale brand review and a re-launch focusing on the 68 year-old brand’s Yorkshire heritage.

Hear why he thinks the nation has a soft-spot for Yorkshire and if he is still confident – as he was when appointed – of taking the now £27M brand to £63M by 2015.

See September’s edition of our sister title Food Manufacture magazine for the full interview with Bye.