It is 50 years since Sparex founder Malcolm Brook (pictured) identified an opportunity in the market for selling lynch pins. Armed with a £200 bank loan, and operating out of a small family garage in Exeter, he took his first order in 1965. The company grew quickly and within 10 years reached an annual turnover of £1 million. In the following three decades the company has developed into a multinational business with 500 staff and offices all over the world. The lynch pin remains part of a range that includes over 50,000 products, and wearing parts and tractor parts for all makes and models. Providing agricultural machinery spare parts in over 100 countries, last year the company generated a turnover of £130 million. Managing director Jeremy Burgess reckons the company’s success is due to a combination of experience and expertise. “I think the main reason why Sparex is so successful, is our global thinking,” he says. “Unlike some of our competitors, we cover not only local areas but the whole world, starting in the UK, but then reaching out to as far as Africa, the Middle East and even the Far East.”