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Woman: I’m going to talk today about MTF, a firm in the North of England that manufactures heating systems. It was set up by David Ross, an engineer who had previously worked in car manufacturing. When David lost his job in 1974 he decided to set up his own company and this opened for business in 1975. It proved very successful and the company now has a turnover of 12.5 million.
In the early days, Ross rejected the idea of a competitive pricing policy to establish the company. He always thought that product quality was more important to the company’s success. He believes this approach has helped make the company a market leader.
Five years ago the company bought new machinery. This has been a success and they now intend to spend large sums on a new computer system. This will improve the speed of customer service.
David Ross believes the workforce plays a large part in the success of his firm. There is a good relationship between management and staff. Basic pay is average for the area and holidays are standard but the company pays bonuses to staff when large orders are finished on time.
Local government wants to encourage training schemes in the workplace and MTF has successfully applied to them for funding. MTF hopes that the company’s training scheme will increase productivity but they accept that money invested in training doesn’t guarantee this.
MTF doesn’t have a large management structure and it has promoted most of its managers from within the company. Ross does not believe management qualifications are important and looks instead for people with a positive attitude towards the company.
Ross believes his company can maintain its market position. He has invested a lot of money in the production process and is confident about the skills of his workforce. Marketing, however, is one part of the business he recognises could get better.