what can we put in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again?’ Pointing fingers at individuals has never worked, says William. Andrew agrees: “Competition in this industry is fierce and there is always someone else who would love to have a go, so we have to get the quality right and get it there when they want it.” William is also very open in his outlook as regards visitors to the mill, being proud of what they have and happy to show it off to anyone. While it is very common for feed sales reps and nutritionists to
come from a farming background, it is not so often the case with mill managers, and perhaps this is one thing which sets Longtown apart. In spite of his great experience within the manufacturing sector, William is essentially a farmer at heart. Customers can see that the values they look for are shared at the production management level, and they really appreciate that the man in charge of the mill intrinsically understands what they want. William goes to Carlisle market twice a week and stands there in his NWF livery, chatting to farmers. He has picked up more than one new customer in this way, although he does it because he enjoys it and it is a part of the way of life. “I would talk to farmers every day,” he says. “You can pick up all sorts of snippets and make sure customers are happy with the way things are running.” William is passionate about his production team; he tries very
hard to get the structure of the team right and also, on a daily basis, to communicate with and work alongside them. With about 40 people working at the site, he sees just about every one of them each day. A practical individual, William likes to be out and about in the mill rather than stuck in the office, and this also gives him the opportunity to explain strategy and make the employees feel a part of it. They are of paramount importance to the business, and in turn they know that the company will continue to invest in the mill, securing its future and theirs. Inevitably, sometimes things go wrong. But William is a great
believer that, when they do, you can get greater customer loyalty if you deal with it properly, and develop an even stronger relationship than you had before. He will go out on to the farm himself and see what needs to be done to put things right. And complaints have halved in the last 12 months, down to a really low level which is remarkable for such a new
site. “I take any complaints personally. I really do,” he says. He also always tries very hard to be close to the sales team, which
is not universally the case in the relationship between production and sales in manufacturing businesses. Northern Area Sales Director Bruce Harding has been with the company for over 20 years, and much of his sales team are equally experienced. “They are some of the best sales people in the country,” says Andrew “Second to none.” The company has just recruited five new members to the team. It’s not easy to find good calibre salespeople, so to be able to employ five is a testament to the NWF’s growing reputation in the area. In some ways, the drivers are just as important; certainly farmers
see more of them than anyone else, so they become the company’s ambassadors and absolutely crucial to how the business is portrayed. So, whenever they are in the yard, William will take the opportunity to chat with drivers and get their feedback too. They look really professional in their uniforms, whether NWF or Jim Peet, and the vehicles are kept clean and smart, underpinned by a five-year rolling programme to replace the fleet. But the drivers are not the only people making delivery onto farms.
When William was taken on, he rather sheepishly asked if it would be okay for him to have a pickup truck, rather than a company car. On his first day, he turned up in it with a trailer on the back. Ever since he has used it not only to take tote bags of product to and from the Aspatria mill near to where he lives, and Longtown (saving a fortune in haulage costs) but also to take bags of feed out to farmers on his way to and from work. “It’s no effort,” he says. “I enjoy it.” It also means that his team see him doing that little bit extra, which hopefully rubs off on them as well. So while William will never lose sight of the fact that his principal
responsibility at work is production management of Longtown mill, he also on a daily basis does a little bit of hands-on practical work, a bit of sales chat with customers, a bit of delivering feed, and all the while running his own smallholding at home. I get the feeling that, not only has NWF found itself the ideal man to run its Longtown mill, the man himself has landed his ideal job.
suppliers of
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