Celebrating 25 years at Adtech

This year, I’m celebrating 25 years of working at Adtech Polymer Engineering. In the last 25 years, I’ve relished finding technical solutions for my customers, investigating new materials and applications, fixing production and supply issues, and most of all, growing alongside the fabulous Adtech team. No two days are the same and every day brings new challenges.

My life-long career at Adtech

I joined Adtech as an invoice administrator in January 1996. I was responsible for putting orders on the system, raising delivery notes and invoices, and organising stock and carriers. I really enjoyed my first role at Adtech as I learnt about all the areas of the business and worked with both our customers and suppliers.

From the invoice administrator role, I went to work in the customer service team, where I was responsible for issuing quotes for bespoke fabrications. I was promoted to Business Manager and looked after the sales, order entry, stock holding and production planning for bespoke fabrications. I then became the General Manager, first for our Stroud site, and later, for both our Stroud and Scotland sites.

In 2014, I was appointed Managing Director, enabling Patrick Thody, the founder of Adtech, to semi-retire. Adtech changed ownership in 2017 and I was given the opportunity to invest in the business as a shareholder. The Managing Director position proved to be my most challenging role to date. I’m now responsible for strategically planning the growth of the company.

What has changed at Adtech in 25 years

Over the past 25 years, I’ve experienced the switch from communicating by phone to primarily using email. This has affected how we build rapport with our customers and added the challenge of engaging our customers in technical discussions and identifying their problems through written conversations.

With the change of ownership, I experienced the shift from being comfortable with our position in the market to strategically planning for the growth of the company. This means I unfortunately spend less time on a day to day basis engaging with customers and more time focusing on projects and strategy.

In 25 years, I faced the loss of long-standing team members, as well as the retirement of Patrick Thody. Each loss in team member was accompanied by a loss in knowledge, skills and company ethos. However, I was also fortunate to see team members develop and grow over the years into hard-working individuals. This is an extremely rewarding experience as a manager.

I also saw the expansion and refurbishment of both the office and the workshop at our Stroud site, as well as the addition of solar panels to the roof and the implementation of new accounting software. All these changes highlight the growth of the company from an 11-member team when I joined to a 20-member team (and currently hiring) now.

Looking back to move forward

In 25 years, I learned that flexibility is key. Making quick decisions to meet the demands of the business, the customers and the team enables us to be agile and quickly respond to challenges thrown our way. That being said, however much preparation we do, things will go wrong. All we can do is understand what went wrong and learn from the outcome.

After 25 years at Adtech, my pride is the loyal team I have the delight of working and growing alongside every day. The team at Adtech all share passion for the business, provide excellent levels of service and drive the business forward year after year. With them by my side, I can tackle anything.

What have you learned in your short or long career? Please share in the comments below.