海角直播

Chamber membership reaps rewards for Stockton business

Joining the North East Chamber of Commerce and working with 海角直播 has led to 鈥榮eismic 鈥檊rowth for a Stockton workwear business with an increase in orders and a move into its own purchased premises.

Alex Ingham, founded MI Supplies 10 years ago working on his own at first where he did everything from sales to sorting out orders. He had previously worked for national workwear suppliers but had a firm belief he could deliver a better service. Now his business has 13 employees and a turnover of 拢2.25m supplying industrial supplies and protective clothing to clients all over the world. It also undertakes safety audits for businesses to give them advice on how to prevent injuries and accidents.

His business has grown substantially in the last 12 months due to, what he calls, a very fortuitous 48 hours. Alex decided to join the NECC and as a result, his Chamber relationship manager, Tom Warnock, told him about a Leading Growth course at 海角直播. He applied with three hours to the course application deadline closing and says the advice to join was the best he had ever been given in his whole career.

Alex explained: 'The benefit of what I learnt has resulted in a seismic change in my business. I had site visits at the region鈥檚 most successful businesses like the NECC President Mike Matthews鈥� company, Nifco and the fast-growing Visualsoft. As well as learning by example I also developed my own leadership skills which have reaped great rewards as well.'

Tom Warnock, NECC said: 'Alex has a tremendous appetite to learn and put positive suggestions into practice. I am delighted joining the Chamber has given him not just the opportunity to network with a range of other businesses, but such a perfect course for his own development.'

As a result of the University course Alex Ingham has introduced a range of forward-thinking measures for his team including putting all his staff through NVQs on business improvement. This has supported a substantial efficiency drive, which in turn, has created increased orders and new jobs. He has also won orders to supply the University.

Alex Ingham has the ambition to be the best employer he possibly can be and has introduced flexi-hours, a bike to work scheme and subsidised gym membership. He also followed the example of retail giant John Lewis and started a company profit share scheme. Every month he reports to his staff on how the company is doing in terms of turnover and profit.

He said: 鈥淚 want to keep my staff and do everything I can to ensure they are happy and rewarded. NECC has really helped me to achieve this goal.鈥�

MI Supplies works for major businesses from Aldi, Lidl to Mercedes and Barbour. Since the company started Alex says over 180,000 different brand and logos have been produced for his customers.

---