Nagma Ebanks-Beni, co-CEO of the international exporter, said growth will come across Prima’s London and County Durham operations
Nagma Ebanks-Beni MBE, co-chair of Prima Cheese (Image: North East England Chamber of Commerce)
The boss of successful food manufacturer Prima Cheese has talked of the firm’s intention to create jobs this year, amid continued growth in international sales.
Nagma Ebanks-Beni, who leads the business with brother Nima Beni, says the £109m-turnover business is poised to grow its near 200-strong workforce by between 10%-15% in the next year as it develops sales around the world. Prima processes hundreds of tonnes of cheese each week, destined for the UK market and 60 different countries – with most recent accounts for the year to the end of March 2025 showing turnover derived from outside Europe made a substantial jump from £15.7m to £21.9m.
In recent years, Prima has invested heavily in its Seaham production site to keep up with demand at home and abroad, and to stay ahead of global competitors as far afield as the Australia, the US and the Middle East. Ms Ebanks-Beni led the opening of Prima’s London base in 2023, which was expanded late last year via a £250,000 refurbishment to bolster the firm’s commercial hub in the capital, incorporating domestic and international sales teams and marketing function.
The larger office footprint – which is within the Prima-owned building on Islington’s Holloway Road – means there is space for an additional 10 staff. Now, the focus is on recruiting salespeople who will be dispatched to international markets from London and workers for the North East site.
Ms Ebanks-Beni, who handles Prima’s commercial activity while her brother is focussed on operations, said: “We’ve now got a renewed commercial focus and that means adding to our international team – which exists in the North East but will be grown in London too. Documentation, loading and warehousing all happens in the North East, while the sales, marketing, travel and representation of Prima as a company goes on in London.”
Having been successful in growing Prima, Ms Ebanks-Beni and her brother are keen to see other businesses in the region make a similar journey. She explained: “We want to be a company that inspires the next generation of companies coming up in the North East. Those wanting to go into international global business. Because for us, it’s been our pivot point and the thing that has added credibility to our company but also given our company and our people so much confidence.
“It’s a force for good and if we can inspire other companies in the region to dip their toes into global business – and into the mindset that we don’t always have to be comfortable and that sometimes its good to push boundaries, and embrace change.”
She added: “We didn’t know much about the Middle East when we went into it 16 years ago, and similarly we didn’t know much about China when we broke into it or Asia-centric markets 10 years ago. I’d never been to Asia, had never set foot in China or been to Singapore, but that is not a preventative of moving forward.”
