FUNDING/MONEY/GRANTS

I’m going to talk about META today, a firm in the North of England that manufactures vacuum cleaners. It was set up by David Brown, an engineer who had previously worked in car manufacturing. When David lost his job in 1970 he decided to set up his own company and this opened for business in 1971．It proved very successful and the company now has a turnover of 11. 5 million.
    In the early days, Brown rejected the idea of a competitive pricing policy to establish the company. He always thought that product quality was more important to the company’s success. He believes this approach has helped make the company a market leader.
    Five years ago the company bought new machinery. This has been a success and they now intend to spend large sums on a new computer system. This will improve the speed of customer service.
    David Brown believes the workforce plays a large part in the success of his firm. There is a good relationship between management and staff. Basic pay is average for the area and holidays are standard but the company pays bonuses to staff when large orders are finished on time.
    Local government wants to encourage training schemes in the workplace and META has successfully applied to them for funding. META hopes that the company’s training scheme will increase productivity but they accept that money invested in training doesn’t guarantee this.
    META doesn’t have a large management structure and it has promoted most of its managers from within the company. Brown does not believe management qualifications are important and looks instead for people with a positive attitude towards the company.
    Brown believes his company can maintain its market position. He has invested a lot of money in the production process and is confident about the skills of his workforce. Marketing, however, is one part of the business he recognizes could get better.