Alistair Houghton meets GEORGE JONES, managing director of A. Algeo, in Speke

AS PEOPLE struggled to stay on their feet during the recent cold snap, foot care specialist A. Algeo sprung into action.

The 129-year-old Speke company saw a spike in online sales of “ice traction” devices such as Spikys that can be worn over shoes to help prevent slipping in ice and snow.

But, even without this year’s cold snap to boost its sales, Algeo has been performing strongly in recent years, growing its sales to the NHS and private podiatry clinics and expanding its overseas operations.

Algeo’s Speke base processes 350 orders a day and last year the company turned over £6.4m.

And, as a company that focuses on the healthcare sector and deals largely with the NHS, managing director George Jones is more than satisfied with Algeo’s continued growth during the recession.

“Our sales up to the end of August, 2009, were up 23% year on year,” said Jones.

“We’re currently running at 17% up year on year.

“NHS budgets are probably set to 2011/12. There will always be a need for these products.”

Northern Irish-born John Algeo founded a leather dealing business in Liverpool in 1881. His son, Arthur, founded the company that today bears his name in 1947.

Algeo was taken over by the Swanson family in the late 1950s before it was bought by the John Joseph Trust in 1990 and management transferred to current chairman, Alan Sheridan.

Algeo had focused on selling to the shoe repair trade, but Mr Sheridan and his family led the firm’s expansion into the orthopaedics, podiatry and medical appliance sectors.

Its orthotics and prosthetics division focuses mainly on the supply of insoles. The majority of its sales are to the NHS.

“We’ll probably do about £2m of insole sales this year,” said Jones.

“That’s our biggest area of growth, and has been for some time.

“We have the best selection of insoles probably in the world, certainly in the UK.”

Algeo also supplies cushioning foams, leathers and other materials to hospitals and health centres so they can make their own bespoke insoles for patients.

“In the past, if you had some sort of foot problem, the first step would be some sort of manual process – a foot impression box,” said Jones.

“In simple terms, you stand in it and it makes an impression of your foot. Resin would then be used to make a model of your foot, and a solution to your foot problem would be built around that.

“That’s changed in the last five years as people have gone down the computer-aided design route. They’ll now use a scanner to capture a perfect image of the foot and use a milling machine to cut out a perfect insole based on those requirements.”

Algeo also sells raw materials to shoe manufacturers – Jones proudly references the fact that the company boasts 14,000 items in its inventory control system.

Algeo has broadened the range of products it offers to podiatrists.

That range goes far beyond insoles to include all a podiatrist could need in their surgery, from chairs to blades.

The company employs two clinical podiatrists – one based in Southampton, the other in Lancashire – to promote its products to professionals in the NHS and private sectors.

Jones is confident the podiatry business will continue to grow.

“There are lots of factors in our favour that are making podiatry more and more relevant,” he said.

The company has extended its range of products for diabetes patients, who can suffer foot problems such as ulcers as a result of the condition.

The nation’s changing demographics could also provide new opportunities for Algeo.

“People are living longer and their feet aren’t necessarily keeping up with that longevity,” said Jones.

Algeo’s work is largely business-to-business, but it does also sell directly to consumers through its foothealthcare.com website. It offers products from corn and verruca treatments to insoles and ice traction devices such as Spikys.

LIVERPOOL-BORN Jones, who today lives in Huyton, graduated from the University of Hull before moving into retail and stock control management at frozen food store chain Iceland.

He continued to work in warehouse and inventory management, working at three Runcorn companies, before joining Algeo, in January, 2000, as operations manager. He became operations director before becoming managing director in 2007.

In his time at Algeo, he has seen the company grow from £1.7m turnover to its current level, boosted by the “tremendous acquisition” of Somerset firm Footwear Findings in 2003.

Despite the recession and the threat of cutbacks in public sector funding, Jones is confident Algeo’s ambitious growth targets can be hit.

“Our long-term ambition was to hit £10m turnover by 2012,” he said.

“We wrote that down some years ago as a pipe dream. It’s becoming realistic now.

“For the last two years, we’ve grown this business in excess of £1m a year in terms of turnover. We just want to maintain that momentum. Orthotics and prosthetics is our core business. We’ve got a big historical background in it. It’s a matter of keeping up and maintaining the momentum we’ve already got there.”

Exports account for up to 15% of Algeo’s sales, and Jones says exports will be key to Algeo’s growth. The company opened its first overseas office in 2008, in Melbourne, Australia.

“We now have a very good working model and an excellent range of products for the orthotics, diabetic and other markets,” said Jones. “We feel we can successfully export that model.”

Outside work, Jones, who is married with two children, plays five-a-side football every week with his friends.

“I used to enjoy watching football, but I’m a Liverpool fan so it hasn’t been very enjoyable recently,” he smiled.

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