| Flagmarket | Article from the Lancashire Evening Post......
Michael Oliver searches for a non-technical phrase to describe the products his companies make and distribute and comes up with one which definitely has its roots in Lancashire: "They fettle things," he says.
Then again his own roots are thoroughly Lancastrian. He's Leyland born and bred, the son of a man who bought an ironmonger's and grew it into a distribution business which went on to supply many of the county's machine-filled mills with possibly the most basic yet vital component of them all – the humble screw.
That business was Heaton's Fastenings. Michael joined in 1966, after taking a Commerce degree at Leeds University, which gave him a useful grounding in accountancy, economics and law.
At any rate it proved more useful in business than his original plan to study Botany might have done. He recalls his brother advising him that, although science had always been his strength at Balshaw's Grammar School, an in-depth knowledge of plants might not necessarily enhance the career he had in mind as a company boss.
Which is what Michael Oliver is today – in triplicate.
He's chairman of three separate companies which operate on Preston's Red Scar estate. Possibly the best known, and most certainly the oldest, is Jeaton, which supplies industrial consumables to the North West engineering industry. If it's tape you want – masking tape, double-sided tape, insulation tape and just about any other sort of "fettling" tape – Jeaton is your man. Likewise for adhesives, abrasives and packaging.
Then there's Michael's other distribution company, Prestec Supplies, which operates in the niche market of newspaper printing and numbers provincial newspapers from the Midlands to Glasgow among its clients, not to mention industry giants like Trinity Mirror and News International.
Speed being all in the newspaper game, Prestec, which is short for pressroom technology, does a rather popular line in splicing equipment.
When daily papers are thundering off the presses at 60-80,000 copies per hour, it would be a considerable inconvenience if, when one giant roll of paper (newsprint) came to an end, those presses had to lose momentum. Prestec's splicing gear enables the roll to be changed without slowing down.
Interesting though Michael finds the world of newspaper production, you sense it's the third company in his empire which holds most fascination for him: "Yes," he confirms, "there's something satisfying about making things to precise tolerances and of high quality."
He's talking about Preston Technical which, since it was formed in 1990, has become one of the leading adhesive tape and foam convertors in the UK and is proud to be accredited with the QS9000 production standard.
At its heart is the manufacture of "die cuts" – specially shaped, precision-cut pieces of tape, foam or laminate which, while meaning little to the uninitiated, are actually the lifeblood of many a modern-day contraption: "There'll be 20 to 30 die cuts in a mobile phone," says Michael, "and usually double-sided too."
The specialist machinery within Preston Technical's 14,000 square feet of workspace also enables the company to cut, slit and shape other companies' products, and to this end they are major sub contractors for abrasives giant 3M. Additionally, new machines have just been installed which are enabling the company to move into the world of labelling.
Michael's determination to adapt and move with time means that round-the-clock ordering is available via e-mail and website facilities and delivery will usually happen within 24 hours.
It's a different world to the one in which he began his business life. After taking his degree he had thought about gaining experience with a corporate giant like GKN, but joining the family firm had become more likely with the sudden death of his father Bill, and that's the way it panned out after he was approached by Jack Bailey, second in command at Heaton's Fastenings: "In some ways it would have been nice to have gained a wider knowledge elsewhere," he says, "but in the end I was asked 'why not come straight into the business?' and so I did."
He was there from 1966 until 1981, by which time had become convinced that, as a means of holding component parts together, there was a greater future in tapes and adhesives than in screws. For instance, and to take the mobile phone as an example again, the modern versions are so small as to render the use of screws almost impossible.
He began Jeaton with half a dozen employees in a mill off Preston's New Hall Lane, distributing products where he could. An early customer for masking tape was British Aerospace and its successor company BAE Systems is still with him today.
A build-up of business, which now also includes cereal makers Kellog, necessitated larger premises. Hence the move to Red Scar four years ago.
And there sits 58-years-old Michael Oliver, married father of two, ready and willing to acknowledge the considerable help he has had over the years from Business Link and the Central and West Lancashire Chamber of Commerce and Industry with regard to developing exports. He's actually on the latter organisation's policy committee and has been helping to formulate the Chamber's official response to the vexed question of regional assemblies.
Outside work he's a resident of Osbaldeston, golf player, fellwalker and football fan and if you want to get him off the subject of business for a moment, just mention Tom Finney: "My dad used to take me to watch him play. The most complete footballer there ever was …"
But back to the subject at hand … his companies provide work for over 50 people who contribute to an annual turnover of £6 million: "We're growing every year," he confirms, "We always make a profit and I think there have been only two years when we didn't increase turnover."
He's got it taped then.
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