A COMPANY behind some of the biggest brand names in the country, and another that has grown its turnover to more than £10m in eight years, featured at a conference in the region yesterday.

Proctor and Gamble (P&G), makers of brands including Ariel, Duracell and Pampers, and The Specials Laboratory, which was set up in Northumberland in 1999, were two of the seven companies to give presentations at the Modern Manufacturing event.

P&G, which employs 140,000 staff in 80 countries, operates three sites around the North-East, including a manufacturing facility at Seaton Delaval, Northumberland, employing 500 people.

Its operations manager, Neil Forsyth, spoke about the 25-fold volume growth at the facility, which produces perfume brands such as Dolce and Gabbana and Hugo Boss, as well as hair care products.

He told business delegates at the event, held at the Nissan factory, in Sunderland, about P&G's "first, fast and built to last" approach to business, ensuring fast reaction times and implementing cost-effective manufacturing techniques.

Other speakers at the event included directors from Thorn Lighting, in Spennymoor, County Durham; RW Injection Moulding, in Middleton-in-Teesdale; Seaward Electronic, in Peterlee; Freudenberg, in North Shields; and Nissan.

Many talked about the adoption of practices, including Six Sigma, Kaizen and Hoshin Planning, to improve manufacturing techniques.

Fiona Cruickshank, managing director of The Specials Laboratory, based in Prudhoe, took a different approach.

"We have taken a deliberate stance not to call improvement by a name or a system," she said. "My team take the best bits from different systems, we don't give it a name, we just tell staff that this is the way we do it round here."

The company is one of the UK's leading manufacturers of unlicensed medicines for the retail, pharmaceutical and healthcare markets.

It makes a range of non-sterile products and has access to a wide range of dosage delivery systems. Products include bubblegum-flavoured medicines for children and cigarettes containing methadone for heroin addicts.

Turnover has grown from £125,000 in its first year to more than £10m, and staff numbers have increased to 150.