Kevin Wrigley: Reflecting on 40 Years at Lionel Hitchen
Kevin Wrigley has been with Lionel Hitchen for four decades, a journey that began with solvents and distillation and has taken him through almost every department in the business. His story is one of adaptability, curiosity, and a willingness to take on new challenges.
Kevin’s path to Lionel Hitchen started while he was living in Dover and working as a school lab technician. After five years, he was ready for something more technical. A role at Lionel Hitchen in Upper Reigate, Surrey, caught his attention, leading to his first interview, though he didn’t get the job straight away. At the time, Kevin was studying for his B Tech in Chemistry, and the company encouraged him to complete his studies and try again. By the time he did, a position had opened at the Barton site as a development lab technician, and he was successful.
He remembers his first day vividly – 16th September 1985. The lab was far simpler then, with just two technicians. Two weeks later, the other lab technician left, leaving 22-year-old Kevin in charge of the lab. For the next 11 years, he ran that lab, extracting herbs & spices and distilling oils of all kinds. The Technical Manager at the time would return from his travels with unusual ingredients and challenge Kevin to see what could be made from them.
In those days, the business was more focused on citrus concentrates and oleoresins than on flavours, but Kevin still found opportunities to innovate. He developed products such as sesquiterpeneless grapefruit and super soluble ginger, and he built the company’s first short-path distillation unit. While most of the work was on a lab scale, some projects, like the grapefruit extractions, required stepping up to larger-scale production trials. Over time, he became the go-to person for scale-ups and production work, before Lionel Hitchen had a full R&D and Creative Solutions team.
By 1996, Kevin was ready for a change and moved into stock control. Back then, everything was done by hand: ledgers, formulas, and even labels, which were created with stencils and paint. He still recalls the arrival of the company’s first computer, with its green screen and a sceptical audience.
In the early 2000s, he played a key role in implementing Unity, then called Formulate – helping to transfer all stock to the new system and develop work orders to ensure accuracy. In 2012, Kevin became Assistant Production Manager, overseeing production teams and warehouses. Just two years later, as the company’s structure evolved, he stepped into the role of Operations Improvement Manager, later becoming Business Improvement Manager. In these roles, he worked across departments to implement World Class Manufacturing and continuous improvement.
There have been many highlights over the years. Kevin has always been willing to take on whatever needed doing, from setting up lean manufacturing processes to managing samples or even hosting the Company’s Off-Site days! “I’ve never said, ‘That’s not my job,’” he reflects. “it’s always been my approach to get involved in any task.”
The company has changed enormously since those early days. When Kevin first joined Barton, there were only 24 employees. Lionel Hitchen himself worked from a Portakabin, walking around to chat with staff and showing genuine interest in their lives. Kevin still remembers Lionel helping him buy his first flat with a bridging loan. While the business has grown to around 150 people, Kevin believes the core values remain the same – it’s just a bigger family now.
Over the years, Kevin stayed as the business kept offering new opportunities. Every time he was ready for something different, the next challenge presented itself. From lab work to stock control, production to improvement, and now warehouse management, it’s never been dull.
In January this year, Kevin officially became Warehouse Manager, a role that feels like coming full circle. Even after 40 years, he finds there is always something new to learn, which, for him, is what keeps things interesting.
There have been plenty of memorable moments along the way, such as visiting a potential customer in the Netherlands with Eva and the technical team, and even the day of his interview at Barton Stacey with Lionel, when Peter Hitchen handed him an ice cream to celebrate the birth of one of Peter’s children. Above all, Kevin values the people he has worked with, learnt from, and supported. “It’s been a career built on collaboration,” he says.
Looking back, Kevin believes some of the most significant improvements include moving to VW, which provided much-needed space when Barton became too cramped, and bringing in external directors like Eva and Tim Metcalfe, who gave the business a new direction while preserving its unique character.
