R10 Questionswith... ichard Dyson
Each month we ask a cleaning industry professional the Tomorrow’s Cleaning 10 Questions. This month, we chatted to Richard Dyson, Managing Director, Greyland Limited....
in excess of £4million and we employ 28 very hard working staff at our new 34,000 square foot factory on the eastern edge of Manchester, just minutes from the UK motorway network.
Q3Who, in any other industry do you most admire?
Q1What was your first job? Filling bottles in a chemical factory. I never
enjoyed school. All I ever managed was an O Level in daydreaming/looking out of the window.
Q2How did you get into the health and safety industry?
Inevitably, I then finished up working on the shop floor at Dymachem - the family business - where I stayed for seven years. I did learn all the capabilities we had though and, in later years, this experience did prove invaluable to not only myself, but many of my long-standing work colleagues too. By 1989, when I was long overdue a change of scenery, I went into sales. This I took to very well and within three years not only had I produced rapid sales growth, but was by then responsible for over 60% of the company’s total sales.
In early 1999, Greyland was created from the ashes of the Dymachem business. Left unemployed, seven of us made the decision to have a go for ourselves. Our central ethos was: “a good product and presentation, delivered quickly, to enable distributors to minimise their stocks and use our production reliability and fast delivery to enhance their business.”
In 2001, when we had approximately 40 customers, I took the opportunity to take the reins as Greyland’s Managing Director. Today we have over 350 UK distributors, turnover is
Duncan Bannatyne (Scottish health clubs entrepreneur and a star of TV’s Dragon’s Den). As well as having a great rags-to-riches story, he has a dogged determination to succeed and is a straight talker too.
Q4If money was no object, what car would you buy?
I wouldn’t change my new Jaguar XJ for any other car at the moment!
Q5How would you improve the cleaning industry?
From my selfish, cleaning chemical manufacturers point of view if competitors stopped producing complicated, over-priced dosing systems, that are never going to be used to their full potential by distributors, life would become a lot more straight forward.
Q6What did you want to be when you were little?
I wanted to be a tour professional golfer. Unfortunately I didn’t work hard enough at this as a teenager and therefore my peak was reached with a handicap of two and representing Cheshire a handful of times.
Q7What do you do to unwind? Relax with the family. Having four children,
there’s always plenty of things to do and places to get to. For many years I have enjoyed watching my children participating in a lot of sport. Football, rugby, hockey, lacrosse, cricket... they have had a go at most things!
REGULAR 62 | TOMORROW’S CLEANING | The future of our cleaning industry
Check out next month’s issue to see what Richard asked our next industry professional...
Q8If you could have a dinner party with any three people, dead or alive, with one other
person cooking and the other person providing the music, who would they be and why? Obviously I would have to vote firstly for my wife Diane’s cooking, without question. The music would have to be that old rock legend Ray Davies, who could mix the chat, I’m sure, between classic Kinks hits. I love no-nonsense straight
talkers...so the late, great Brian Clough, together with Top Gear motor mouth, Jeremy Clarkson, would be great fun! Finally comedy legend, John Cleese. After a few bottles of wine we would be having an absolute riot!”
Q9What, do you think, is the future of the cleaning and hygiene industry, as one
of our topics this month? I think it is very healthy. Everybody will always need to clean and therefore ‘environmentally friendly' cleaning products will always have a long future.
Tomorrow’s Cleaning Editor, Charlotte Taylor, asks...
Q10 What are you most looking forward to in 2012? Manchester City clinching the Premiership, while hammering those dirty, evil reds on April 24th!
www.greyland.co.uk
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