Member Article

Star Tissue one of top 1,000 firms to inspire Europe

Star Tissue UK is celebrating being chosen as one of the top 1,000 companies to ‘inspire Europe’.

The Blackburn-based family-owned business has been highlighted as one of the fastest growing and most dynamic small and medium-sized enterprises In the UK and Europe.

And its managing director Khalid Saifullah was last week (Tuesday, September 5) a guest at the launch of the ‘1,000 Companies To Inspire Europe 2017’ report at the five-star Sofitel Hotel in Brussels.

A spokesman for London Stock Exchange Group, who commissioned the report, said: “The criteria to reach the final 1000 is very challenging. A company must have shown an exceptional financial performance and fast growth in rate of turnover over a three-year period.”

Mr Saifullah said: “We are delighted to be recognised as one of Europe’s most inspiring and high-growth businesses. “It’s a magnificent accolade for Star Tissue to be included in the exclusive report and is a testament to our workforce in Blackburn for providing a fantastic product and service which has enabled the company to again outperform the growing hygiene paper market. “Our continued investment enables us to improve our manufacturing and service capabilities, ensuring we continue to meet the growing demands of our diverse customer base. “We are honoured to be up among the elite of Europe and look forward to continuing our growth ahead of the hygiene paper market.”

The launch of the report was being hosted by Xavier Rolet, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange Group, and Luca Perano, chief executive of Elite, the capital raising programme.

Mr Rolet said: “If Europe is to have a sustainable economic future, it must back its engines of economic growth and only real source of potential job-creation: its 23million SMEs. It is critical that we continue improving access and cutting the cost of finance for fast growing companies, giving them access to long-term patient equity capital to fund their enormous potential. This is an ambition we share with the EU Commission and applaud its initiative to develop deeper and more connected capital markets across the continent through the Capital Markets Union project.

“The London Stock Exchange Group has long been committed to supporting high growth companies. Together our 1000 Companies to Inspire Europe reports, international growth market, AIM, and business support and capital raising programme, Elite, shine a light on the fastest growing companies across the continent and their critical importance to innovation, job creation and Europe’s future economic resilience.”

Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission Vice-President, said: “Europe needs more fast-growing and innovative companies as they are the backbone of our future economic development and job creation. This is why improving the ability of dynamic SMEs to access finance is one of my priorities. We need to make sure that our rules are proportionate and fit for purpose. We should remove barriers to cross-border provision of financing and ensure that SMEs can tap capital markets across Europe.”

Star Tissue employs about 80 staff at its factory in Mill Hill. The company was established in 2003 and has grown year on year to become one of the leading independent manufacturers of hygiene paper products.

It has made continuous investment in new production technology and systems to enable it to operate efficiently to meet the needs of their customers.

The core of Star Tissue’s business is manufacturing away-from-home hygiene paper products, manufacturing private label products for major suppliers and distributors in the personal hygiene, catering and medical markets in the UK and Ireland. Star Tissue offers a number of premium quality brands including Sirius, ecoroll, BLISS and EVOTEX.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Rachel Pinder .