Setting sights on the future
Stephen Nadin, managing director of Rocal Group, talks about the recent management buy-out and what it means to their employees, customers and business partners.
It’s been sometime in coming, but as a management team we have finally purchased all the businesses that form Rocal Group, including our revered solid timber composite door brand, Endurance Doors. I’ve been with the business for 18 years in a variety of roles culminating into the move to managing director in 2010, and since then I’ve been diligently leading the senior management team.
The deal, which was concluded on Tuesday March 2, 2021, was for the acquisition of the entire Rocal Group of companies which comprises of Rocal Insulating Panels, Rocal Indoor, Rocal Foiling, Rocal SIPs, Rocal Extrusions, and the Endurance Doors brand. The new director-owners of the group include myself, along with Alison Jenkin (group accountant), Garry Brewin (operations director) and Kevin Ashe (production director).
This acquisition was from the previous owners James and Sandra Longley who have done much to build the group through careful investment, which has also seen the workforce increase to over 200 in total. We’re already most of the way through a £1.1 million investment programme, which includes a new 30,000ft2 distribution hall, and this will help transform us into a truly world-class business operation.
Consideration needs to be made to the fact that our Endurance Doors business is one in which each door is individually crafted using modern methods of manufacturing, along with harnessing the latest machine technology. While this business is the main part of the group’s focus, we also have door panel business that operates under the Impressions and Aboda brands – both highly successful in the trade channels.
Supporting much of our business activities is Rocal Extrusions, a dedicated business unit that produces plastics extrusions and foil lamination services to Endurance, but also to other external businesses. Yet, no other door manufacturer can call upon these specialist skills in-house and it’s very much part of our ethos as a business. Other parts of the group also provide products for the strong local market for caravan and mobile home manufacture.
For our employees, the management buy-out will offer long-term stability for the group and ultimately opportunity, as we look to continue our strong growth trajectory and our recruitment and employee development plan. The same business principles also apply to our customers and business partners who can be assured that we will look to deliver our long-term plan with panache and by way of the great customer care and culture that we have across the group.
Recently we have committed to a £200K investment in ‘Big Change’ software, as we believe the future of our business will be heavily focused on innovation and customer excellence, and therefore technology will be very much at the fore of these business philosophies. Several multinational businesses have adopted the same software platform, and it will help revolutionise the business with a paperless environment and complete visibility across all of our operations, making us more effective and efficient in the process.
For the vast majority of our customers and business partners there will be little change in the day-to-day operations, other than the continued thirst to excel in everything that we do. Arguably we now have a more robust financial platform for the long term, and there’s the reassurance that the board of directors have a big financial interest into the future direction of the group.
Rocal Group is a fantastic business across all divisions, and we have built a wonderful and engaging corporate culture. Our flagship brands are hugely respected and even our Trustpilot rating for the Endurance Doors brand is a standout performer in the sector with a 4.7 rating across 225 reviews. But now that these businesses issues have concluded, we can turn our attentions on catapulting this great business further forward in all of our respective markets.