Mark Edmonds, managing director of award-winning agricultural and construction product manufacturer Gripple, will leave the company this week to start a new business in the US.
Mr Edmonds joined Gripple’s headquarters in Sheffield from Gripple Inc. in Chicago in 2007 where he was managing director. The company’s turnover increased from about £25 million when he joined as MD to nearly £40 million in 2012/2013.
Mr Edmonds, whose wife is American, is moving to Wisconsin in the US to start his own business. Gripple’s founder and chairman, charismatic Sheffield businessman Huw Facey, will take over as interim managing director while the company finds a permanent replacement.
Under Mark’s stewardship the company, which specialises in the design and manufacture of wire tensioners and joiners, brought several new products to market, each with simple but clever engineering at the core.
Product areas that were launched and have grown in this time include catenary (chain-based) products, pipe clamps and seismic products. In the agricultural business, a recent product worth highlighting is the earth anchor, an invention devised to provide anchorage to areas of loose soil to prevent soil erosion on sloped fields.
It is understood that a significant part of Mark’s decision to move back to the US was his wife and young family’s desire to live there.