A great love of manufacturing

Mar 3 2010 By The Journal

THE Ford Group, comprising Ford Component Manufacturing and Ford Aerospace, celebrates its centenary in 2010. Third generation chairman, Geoff Ford, is in no doubt about the sense of achievement involved. He tells The Journal their story.

My grandfather began the business in February, 1910, with two members of staff. Since then, we’ve survived two fires, two world wars and numerous recessions. We’ve also had to reinvent ourselves several times over the decades and I believe that, despite business start-ups being all the rage, every reinvention was virtually a new start.

We love manufacturing for a myriad of reasons: it’s never dull, there are always fresh challenges and I feel we have a serious responsibility as the creators of the original wealth, without which the economy could not function.

We must also be at our most flexible to take full advantage of the "new economies" which could give the North East a unique opportunity to help to shape the future. I believe we can replicate the imagination, innovation and inventiveness, so strongly associated with our past, and apply them to our future.

We need to focus on the image of manufacturing, which does not have a positive feel to it. There is an enormous range of career opportunities available to people of all ages, including sales, purchasing, finance, IT, quality, HR, engineering and administration.

We are very fortunate to have Blue Venture in South Tyneside, which is our Education Business Partnership, led by the inspirational Gillian Bulman. Blue Venture is working well with the South Tyneside Manufacturing Forum and individuals such as Janet Elsy from Connect, the community transport organisation, to promote manufacturing in our borough to students of all ages in our schools.

Lyndsey Whiterod, the recently appointed principal at South Tyneside College, is like a breath of fresh air, and we now have a much more joined up approach to the importance of supporting manufacturing.

We also need to give real impetus to the diploma opportunities now available to young people, especially in manufacturing and product design, along with engineering. The Government’s drive on apprenticeships, if it’s genuine, should also help us to ensure a constant flow of talent into our industry. The Engineering Employers’ Federation (EEF) is doing a tremendous amount of work to address the issue of skills, which may yet be our greatest challenge.

It must have been a love of manufacturing which caused my grandfather, Robert Ford, to set up the business in 1910. We intend to continue to repay his faith in manufacturing.