Owning a pharmacy in the Belfast suburbs in the 1970s, Thomas Eakin saw the problems some customers had with stoma devices – so he turned the terraced house next door into a factory to make better products. Today the company – which is now directed by his sons, Jeremy and Paul – manufactures and supplies ostomy and stoma products to 30 countries worldwide. Thanks, in part, to acquiring the Cardiff company Pelican Healthcare in 2007, and to expanding its range of products, international sales have seen growth of 24% a year from £13.4m in 2009 to £20.7m in 2011.