Life begins after the buy out

TO borrow from that well-known advertising slogan, the workers and management at Texol Technical Solutions plc liked their firm so much they decided to buy it.

Quite whether it sounded as rosy a picture 18 months ago when the engineering outfit that was to be renamed Texol was put up for sale, its previous owners having decided it was no longer part of their long-term thinking, is another matter. But since then, Texol has moved from being an unwanted division of a large organisation to a growing business given a new lease of life by a management-employee buy-out.

Not bad for an organisation facing the prospect of closure not so very long ago, at the cost of 167 jobs. Such has been the turnaround in its fortunes, Texol expects to announce a turnover of #12 million, compared with last year's #5m. What's more, on the back of an ambitious programme of investment, Texol is now increasing the size of its workforce.

Though the buy-out involved a halving of staff and a streamlining of work practices, including the abolition of demarcation, the signs of recovery are everywhere to be found. Eighteen months ago, the staff at the newly bought-out Texol numbered 84; on Monday, the 104th member of staff began his first day's work.

There was no animosity when NCR - the company perhaps best known for automated cash machines - decided that its engineering division, now Texol, was no longer part of its core business. No animosity to the extent that when Texol - which, like NCR, is based in Dundee - opened for business, its first contract was with NCR.

In simple terms, Texol used to engineer the metal bits that appear in cash dispensers. While they continue to do that, now, their target market has expanded to include the electronics, telecommunications, food and oil and gas industries. There is a wider portfolio of skills too. Texol is positioning itself to be an engineering and electrical one-stop shop: come to Texol with an idea for a machine component and see the concept turn into reality without any of the work having had to be sub-contracted to other companies.

Come to Texol and see also what being masters and mistresses of their own destiny has done to the staff. "I remember the ink was dry on the buy-out from NCR on the Friday and we were working on the Saturday morning," begins managing director, Ken Ingram. "The buy- out was achieved because, faced with redundancy, the employees decided to plough their redundancy money into running the company themselves."

Before a spell living and working away from Dundee, Ingram used to work for NCR, in their machine shop, where he was eventually to become assembly manager. His return to Dundee was because of the invitation to structure the management-employee buy-out. "If you want the best sales force, it is the staff themselves. All we need to do is bring the prospective customer through the factory gates. So far, every time a potential customer comes through the door, we have won the sale.

"They see the workforce and that's enough. People assume that because we are a metal-based business, everything is going to be covered in oil. So when they come into the factory and see it spotlessly clean and well cared-for, they are pleasantly surprised. They see skilled staff, they see staff with a pride in their work. You don't need all that public relations stuff when you have just great people working the machines."

The quick realisation that - good though their contract with NCR was - they could not risk being reliant on just one customer has led Texol to go seeking new business.

Now, Textol has 42 different customers. One of the reasons this is the case is due to#1.2m worth of investment in new machinery and systems. In two weeks, Texol will take delivery of new machinery that will add a further #750,000 to its investment expenditure. Like the city of Dundee itself, Texol is facing a bright future because it has been prepared to think big.

Willie Macaulay is the sales and marketing director. "Since the closure a few years ago of the Timex factory, the engineering sector had struggled in Dundee.

When both Timex and NCR were in the city, some 30 small tool rooms were sustained by contracts from them. But Texol is a symbol of the engineering sector beginning to bounce back in Dundee and it is great to be part of a locally-based company that is thriving.

"I suppose the secret of our success is the flexibility of the staff. They are motivated by being shareholders and they are prepared to be flexible and versatile to make sure the job is done well and quickly. I would challenge anyone to come up with a quicker turn- around time than us. We are able to produce parts in unrivalled time. Already, we have been able to pay bonuses to the staff on three separate occasions.

"Texol Technical Solutions plc was revived entirely from the redundancy money offered by NCR. We have no debt. There were no venture capitalists. Ken Ingram's vision when he became managing director was that if we do things right, we would succeed. And we have."

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