Business Mentors in East Riding of Yorkshire

At its heart lies a serene landscape of swirling grasslands, medieval towns, manor houses and the city of Hull where trendy bars and cafés rub shoulders with traditional museums and art galleries. Life in the Wolds is luxuriously slower-paced, from the unhurried Elizabethan elegance of Burton Agnes and Burton Constable to the pretty Gothic streets of Beverley with its towering Minster. Delight in the simple pleasures of historic market towns Howden, Hedon and Pocklington, or take in Driffield and the peaceful riverhead.

Cranswick, one of Hull’s biggest employers, currently accounts for almost 60 per cent of all UK pork exports to the Far East. Smith & Nephew Group has a history dating back 160 years to the family enterprise of Thomas James Smith, who opened a small pharmacy in Hull in 1856. Swift is a UK-leading manufacturer of touring caravans, motorhomes and holiday homes. The Swift Group head office is based in Cottingham. Employing more than 1,000 people, Swift is one of the region’s biggest names in a proud and long-standing caravan industry.

One of East Yorkshire's most famous entrepreneurs are brothers Malcolm and Eddie Healey. With hardly a school qualification between them, they managed to influence the shopping experience for many across the globe. The family’s fortunes changed in the 1930s, when Stanley their father, a painter and decorator, traded in his brushes and overalls to set-up a corner shop business selling painting and decorating supplies. His simple yet shrewd idea went on to spawn a chain of superstores Status Discount Stores (later sold to MFI, which helped fuel the country’s DIY obsession.

One friend of the family said: "Malcolm and Eddie had a determination to succeed. Money was their benchmark, but it wasn’t everything. More than anything they were driven by a need to achieve."
“They shared the work ethic of their father and hard work paid dividends. They worked hard but they knew how to spend their money,” another friend remarked.