Two North East business leaders have been named among the country's most ambitious in The LDC Top 50 Most Ambitious Business Leaders for 2026. Peter Moody, founder of recycling firm GAP Group, and Jonny Catto, co-founder of plastic packaging maker iPac Packaging Innovations, were selected from more than 620 nominations.
Both men lead Gateshead-based businesses with multiple locations, and together they employ more than 300 people.
Work ethic from parents and military service
Peter Moody, 61, who set up GAP Group after more than two decades as a submariner in the Navy, said: "I think you get your work ethic from your parents and seeing your parents getting work in. My mam held down three cleaning jobs for most of her life and when I set up the business - having done 23 years in the forces - I took her work ethic."
He added: "My skills were honed in the military - setting targets, putting plans together and getting where you need to be. But I never ever wanted my kids to have to work the way my mam did."
Peter, who left school at 15 with few qualifications and credits the Navy for instilling much of his leadership ability, said: "When I grew up you could tell what day it was by the type of food you were getting. Towards the end of the week it'd be beans on toast type thing, until payday came. I think it's about wanting something better for my family and those that work for us."
Growth and expansion plans
Today GAP Group has a turnover of more than £27m and specialises in taking electrical waste, including fridges and batteries. It has expanded into Yorkshire and Scotland with recycling centres. Next year will see it expand further with a joint venture with a university spin-out, based on Teesside, that will help recover precious metals from electrical circuit boards.
"You've got to be ambitious to get where you need to be," Peter added. "But it's not just me, it's the team, especially the senior leadership team. We set goals and quite ambitious targets and we do everything we can to meet them."
Jonny Catto launched iPac with his father-in-law following a conversation on a ski lift. Now 42, he started the business in 2016 having quit his job at Deloitte. A decade later, iPac is the UK's largest thermoformer of plastic packaging, with its trays used by supermarket customers such as M&S and Tesco. It produces more than half a billion of them each year.
Investment and future targets
Jonny explained: "We raised a second round of equity funding with Maven earlier this year and the aim of that is about vertical integration - we're bringing in house about two thirds of our PET supply chain. Currently we buy PET in sheet form whereas we're putting an extrusion system to do that ourselves."
He added that it is part of an investment programme over the next 24 months that is just shy of about £10m. "Then there's the expansion of our thermoforming operations - we had a new line land in May this year and we've got another coming in before the year's out."
That work is allowing iPac to target the meat retail sector, a new market to add to its customer base of other food producers and pharmaceutical companies. Within five years, Jonny hopes to have doubled the revenue of the company to about £50m versus its 2025 level.
Expansion of the firm's Gateshead factory is already under way, with the potential for more after the next 12 months. iPac currently employs about 105 people, with new recruitment for about 12 positions. From there, Jonny says there will be further jobs created alongside the company's revenue growth.
