Rock Fall UK, a second-generation, family-owned safety footwear business based in Alfreton, Derbyshire, has been named a finalist for The Gerald Edelman Family Business of the Year Award at the Lloyds British Business Excellence Awards 2026.
Founded in 1997, the company supplies safety boots and shoes to high-risk industries and reached an all-time high turnover of £21.6 million in 2025, according to the business.
The family’s trading story began on local Derbyshire markets in the 1980s, selling high quality leather slippers, and the first Rock Fall range was based on formal leather shoes. The company then moved into safety footwear with a vision of offering the UK a wide variety of practical, safe and comfortable options. Rock Fall now joins the shortlist for the UK’s largest business awards programme, confirmed in July 2026, with winners to be announced at Grosvenor House in London on 10 November 2026. The full line-up of finalists is published on the awards category page.
Two decades of continuous growth
Rock Fall reports continuous year-on-year growth over the past two decades. The business attributes this to product innovation built on new material and component technology, diversification into new overseas territories and a deliberately disruptive approach to product development, using curiosity-led research to generate new and niche market opportunities. A close-knit team of 49 employees, drawn from a diverse range of backgrounds and including highly experienced functional experts in key roles, supplies a constant flow of new ideas, while in-house laboratory testing and quality control protect assured quality.
Guided by what it calls a ‘customer-first always’ mentality, the brand works exclusively through Authorised Distribution Partners and collaborates with major end-user customers and industry bodies to raise workplace safety standards. On its website, Rock Fall states that its footwear meets or exceeds the EN ISO 20345 standard, that it is a registered safety supplier with the British Safety Industry Federation, and that its record of product firsts includes internal metatarsal protection and footwear engineered for extreme temperatures.
Responsibility to people and planet
Alongside commercial performance, the company makes a significant commitment to sustainability and ethics, aiming to reduce its environmental footprint and improve transparency in sourcing. Its actions include working only with responsible, traceable suppliers, using recyclable packaging printed with soy-based inks and reducing reliance on virgin plastic. The company also states that parts of its range have been Verified by the Vegan Society, a step it describes as an industry first.
For the judges of this family business category, Rock Fall presents a clear purpose: to engineer advanced footwear that is trusted to perform. From a market stall in Derbyshire to a brand competing in overseas territories, the second generation of the family describes a business that is never standing still, obsessed with quality and constantly pushing to create ever safer, more comfortable and functional footwear.
