PRESENT: Richard Slater Lancashire Business View (chair)
Victoria Pittman Granby Marketing
if they don’t have it they’re going to get it from someone else.
If we can keep the customers that we’ve got and they grow, it’s better than chasing new customers. So we don’t have a very big sales team. Our focus is more on account management.
We went backwards
to go forward. We started focusing on
contracts and jobs that were making money rather than chasing everything
LW: For us it’s always been about retention, building that great relationship with the client. We’ve got clients that have been with us from day one. We always say it’s more important for us to retain the client than go out chasing new ones.
There are a lot of people promising people things that they can’t deliver. Our key value is transparency. We’re really honest with clients.
We find that because we’re growing with them as they grow, they stay with us. We focus on the people. The team are very involved and hands-on.
They’re really aware of what’s going on in the
Dean Rodgers PM+M
Khalid Saifullah Star Tissue
business. They are not just coming in and doing a nine to five. That’s key for us. It is all about the people.
DR: Through Covid a lot of businesses streamlined. Another thing that has come out is the need to be customer facing and getting that right.
Everyone’s margins at the minute are shrinking, with increased costs when it comes to the supply chain and staffing. If you can focus on that sale and drive that then your margins might be shrinking but hopefully your profit stays high.
What are the challenges around the corner that will stand in the way of you staying competitive and profitable?
JV: Operating costs. Insurance and wages have gone up quite a lot in the last two years.
We need to retain good people so we engage with our workforce and get them on the ball so they’re on a journey with the company.
In our industry we use a lot of processing equipment so we’re reliant on diesel. Red diesel was banned last April, so our diesel costs have risen significantly.
Diesel, insurance and wage rises come off your bottom line. You have to start looking at ways to be more efficient. Investing in the newest technology is vital. So is cost control and having the ability to adapt and react is vital.
Our industry is driven by commodity crises which are highly reactive to global factors. Overnight the markets can crash. You’ve just got to be able to adapt and react.
You have got to be good at what you do and James Varley Morecambe Metals
Laura Weldon Studio LWD
efficient. Relationships with our customers has always been very important us. Customer service and knowing what your customers need are integral.
KS: The world is a lot more unstable than it was three or four years. We’ve had everything thrown at us and that has made businesses a lot more resilient.
They are a lot more geared up and the structure has changed. Decisions need to be taken a lot faster and layers of management have changed a little bit.
We recognise, going forward, labour costs are going to get higher, energy costs are going to get higher, operating costs are going to get higher. So we’re looking at how we can become a net zero company.
In manufacturing the big challenge for us is people. It’s getting the technicians, the people operating the machines. So we’re trying to work to develop a more detailed training programme where we can attract and train people up into those jobs.
VP: As an industry, we’ve probably been hit with every possible challenge going over the last two years: labour shortages, fuel surcharges, postal strikes, increased energy costs, Brexit, the political environment.
Obtaining cardboard from our supply chain has been a massive challenge. There’s been a significant increase in e-commerce and cardboard shortages.
Three paper mills in Europe shut down because of labour shortages caused by the situation in Ukraine.
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