A memorial fund set up in honour of former Yorkshire businessman Andrew Lupton is set to smash its fundraising target of £20,000.

Ripon-based Econ Engineering set up the Just Giving campaign to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation following the tragic death of Sales Director Andrew Lupton in 2022.

Mr Lupton, who ran the second-generation family business alongside his brother Jonathan, was just 56 years old when he died suddenly of a heart attack. Founded by their father Bill 55 years ago, Econ is now the leading UK manufacturer and supplier of winter maintenance vehicles with an 85% share of the market.

A series of fundraising events and team-building exercises have been held by the team, while donations have also been made from local groups, individuals and business associates. And despite the £20,000-mark being reached this week, there remains one more event for the staff to undertake as a group of employees prepare to tackle the Yorkshire Three Peaks on May 18.

Econ’s Managing Director, Jonathan Lupton said:

"We have been proud to partner with the British Heart Foundation and absolutely delighted that we have been able to support them with our fundraising."

“This is particularly poignant given the sad death of Andrew and we want to do as much as we can to increase awareness of heart disease and raise vital money for the charity, in his memory."

“We may have reached the £20,000 mark, but we are not finished yet. A team of Econ employees will be tackling the Three Peaks in May and we hope people will continue to support the memory of Andrew by donating to their efforts.”

BHF figures show that around 183,000 people living in North Yorkshire have been diagnosed with high blood pressure and 45,000 people are living with coronary heart disease.

In Yorkshire there are around 3,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year and only 1 in 11 people survive these attacks. Every three hours, someone in the region dies from a heart or circulatory disease.

BHF Fundraising Manager, Leya Baksh, said:

“We are honoured that Econ Engineering has chosen to support us. More than one in four people in the UK die from heart and circulatory conditions, so the money raised is vital for us to continue our research into better ways of diagnosing, preventing and treating patients.”

As well as raising money during the year, employees have been given the opportunity to participate in a number of BHF-supported health and wellbeing engagement activities, to ensure a healthier workforce.

Econ’s team of expert engineers design and build every aspect of their vehicles at the Ripon factory and recently launched and sold the world’s first fully electric gritter (E-QCB) which has been successfully trialled at highways depots across the country.