OUR 50 YEAR HISTORY
At Smallfry, we take an idea or conceive a new one, explore its potential and then make it commercially real – whether that’s a new product or service, a new strategy, or a whole new way of thinking.
We’ve used our customer-driven, strategic design approach for more than 50 years, with numerous success stories proving its value:
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- Created a transformational product range which delivered £500m in incremental sales
- Smashed first year sales target of 800k by achieving 6m units sold within 12 months
- Grew a static category 600% without any PR or marketing support – purely by in-store impulse impact
Plus an awful lot more. And it all started long ago, when one of our founders, Tim Fry, designed the Hillman Imp motor car…
The Inception
Smallfry have been developing commercially successful products across a wide range of industrial and technology sectors since our foundation in Britain’s industrial and automotive heartlands almost fifty years ago.
Smallfry was founded in 1971 by Anthony Smallhorn and Tim Fry (hence our name). In his early twenties, Tim designed the Hillman Imp motor car, which was designed to challenge the Mini – a small car which could easily fit a 6-foot man with room for a child’s car seat in the back.
The engine was originally from a Coventry Climax Fire Pump where the mechanical layout was repackaged to accommodate the new functionality in just 6 weeks. It was the first Aluminium Cylinder Head car seen in mass production. He went on to head the Advanced Engineering and Advanced Styling teams at the Chrysler Rootes Group before setting up his own design consultancy – Smallfry.
The Journey
Over the past 50 years, Smallfry has been through a great amount of change and development, creating memorable key achievements and forming long lasting client relationships, some which are still ongoing today. Some of the most memorable milestones for Smallfry can be seen below.
Leadership Now
Steve May-Russell (CEO of Smallfry) is a well-respected regular speaker at international conferences as an innovation coach and design mentor by many global organisations, working with board members and senior managers to help invigorate and develop new and refreshed product and service offerings.
Steve has run numerous innovation workshops across multi-disciplinary teams, with notable projects including M&S Learning and Development Academy and the EPSRC award ‘Supply Chain Innovation Towards A Circular Economy’. He was also invited to provide expert knowledge to diverse multi-layered organisations such as Panel Advisor for Innovate UK and the Satellite Applications Catapult.
Steve has specialist knowledge in industrial design and innovation strategy and a vast personal portfolio of appointments and awards, specialising in: Market Insights, Segmentation, Innovation Strategy, Commercial Strategy and Product Development.
The Team Today
Smallfry takes pride in having a diverse, user-focused innovation team of industrial and product designers, mechanical engineers and software engineers, technicians, strategists, human centred designers, marketeers and problem solvers, with each individual bringing something different and unique to the group, whilst all being creative, pragmatic, focused and driven to achieve the best for our customers desires.
Our Clients
Smallfry are proud to work with companies of all shapes and sizes, from individual ‘start-ups’ to global corporations. No matter who, our approach will be tailored to suit, and our commitment is guaranteed.
Our Awards
We are proud to showcase a collection of awards won from past projects, with the list constantly increasing with new, innovative solutions being produced in our design studio.
