How do you rescue a company from the brink of collapse? The managers at Lintott Control Systems certainly have a winning formula – and now have two EDP Business Awards to prove it. Managing director David Owen spoke to BETHANY WHYMARK about his secrets for success.
Walking into the Lintott Control Systems board room give you an instant flavour of the company.
With plentiful staff notices, posters about its charitable activities, two proudly displayed EDP Business Awards from 2016 and a huge computer monitor dominating one wall, you envisage a forward-thinking firm with a strong work ethic.
But when managing director David Owen and chief operating officer Jamie Thums took a controlling interest in the firm in 2012 it was a very different story.
On the verge of collapse, Lintott had racked up a £1.3m loss on £10m of sales in the previous year.
The new bosses brought with them an equity injection of £850,000 and a desire to modernise the ailing firm.
Five years on, after major investment and a targeted recruitment drive, the company is on the road to recovery. Last year it recorded growth of 22% with sales totalling £9.7m, and it is on course to grow by a further 40% in 2017.
Mr Owen, an accountant by trade, said initially the company had to be 'run on a shoestring'.
'The business had lost £2.2m over the previous two or three years. Going from that to where we are now is quite a feat.'
He added: 'We have got a mountain to climb, but we are in a good position and the orders are strong.'
The Bowthorpe company, winner of the EDP Business Award for Enviro-technologies, supplies water treatment and water control systems and chemical dosing equipment to many major utilities firms including Anglian Water, Thames Water and Scottish Water.
Its team of more than 50 engineers – including mechanical, electrical and software engineers and developers – design the control systems and write the code by which they operate.
Its testing systems and parts of the design process are now automated, symptomatic of Mr Owen's desire to embrace more digital technology in the business.
One of its latest innovations is an online system enabling clients to configure their own water control systems. Mr Owen believes it to be a first for the industry, adding that it can cut the design process from weeks to hours and will ultimately boost productivity.
He said: 'This gives us the scope to move into other sectors, eventually.'
All its products are now fitted with a QR code which, when scanned, enables customers to access drawings and data records for their systems through a central database.
The firm has just invested £100,000 in new computer-aided design (CAD) technology, in addition to around £400,000 of company-wide investment made last year.
Staff innovations are encouraged, with two employees receiving a £5,000 grant to design and build a new computer-aided design and manufacture (CAD/CAM) router to measure and cut control system panels.
Mr Owen said: 'We have a really talented, highly skilled workforce and we have been able to develop a lot of things with them.'
He added: 'The big challenge for Lintott was that, when you are on your knees and have no money, it is not easy to recruit people.
'The EDP Business Awards were a big part of our campaign to make people aware of our business.'
The total workforce now stands at more than 100, with plans to recruit another 20 over the next few months.
For the directors, making a rich work environment for their employees has always been a priority. Its 'visual digital' work spaces (featuring an abundance of pinboards with target sheets, staff briefings and notices of company policies and goals), alongside its growing training offering, carbon footprint reduction programme, and encouragement of charitable activities (staff all get two days of paid leave a year to take part in fundraising), contributed to it winning the EDP Business Award for Corporate Social Responsibility.
Its 2016 staff satisfaction survey showed 88% of employees were happy at work, but the aim is to reach 100%.
Before coming to Lintott, Mr Owen worked at AIS Engineering helping struggling arms of the global network to return to growth. Despite his financial training, he says he has 'always been fascinated by the engineering industry'.
Professional development is key
Staff training is a facet of the business to which Mr Owen attaches great importance.
Lintott's training offering is expanding at a rate of 28% per year, and in the five years since Mr Owen and Mr Thums took charge 10 apprentices have completed courses with the company.
It also has seven science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) ambassadors on its staff.
The directors are spreading this emphasis on education around the county.
Together with the UEA, Great Yarmouth College, City College Norwich, Norfolk County Council and other partners, they plan to set up a training academy at Lintott to provide software production and manufacturing courses.
Mr Owen and Mr Thums also started up the Greater Norfolk Manufacturing Group last year – its most recent event attracted around 50 attendees – and Mr Thums is chair of the advanced manufacturing and engineering group at the New Anglia LEP.
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