Birmingham never ceases to amaze me. You think you have a good idea of what's going on out there but the city almost daily has the ability to shock you in a pleasing way.
It leads you to believe that we are still the city of a thousand trades, producing all manner of products. When you look around your office or home and count the number of manufactured items you can understand why.
But it’s always uplifting to discover a gem of a company which is enjoying success even in these straitened times.
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We received a press release from CMA Moldform, based in Birmingham’s Spitfire Park.
Due to continued rapid expansion over the past 12 months, they needed even more production space and so have managed to secure an additional 20,000 square feet adjacent to their existing factory, bringing their overall premises size to 40,000 square feet. Their offices have also now relocated to these new, purposely fitted-out premises.
And this is just their modest way of demonstrating that due to hard graft and persistence their business is succeeding even when trading conditions are unfavourable.
Peter Turnock, CMA Moldform’s managing director, is rightly proud that his company is going from strength to strength. Peter has been interviewing for another 10 to 15 artists to add to his staff of 48, such are the growth prospects.
The company is owned by David Buttress, wife Dorothy, and son Kevin. All three have years of experience and are very much hands-on at the factories on a daily basis.
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Peter joined the family business of husband and wife David and Dorothy Buttress five years ago, bringing to the firm a career-long experience of distribution, mouldings, seminars in the gift ware industry and the electrical sector.
David and Dorothy and their son Kevin have nearly 100 years of experience in moulding and casting of high-quality products and now work for leading companies including Jaguar Land Rover, Bentley and Aston Martin.
It’s worth looking at exactly what CMA Moldings do. The “u” from the British spelling is missing, by the way, because a company using the “u” already existed. CMA has been producing high quality rapid prototypes, assemblies and components for over 20 years, using vacuum, pressure and RIM (Reactive Injection Mouldings) casting, which has led to Tier One status in numerous industries.
They produce fine scale models, which is still a large part of the business today and the active art department for which they are recruiting caters for specialist design work and installations.
Some of the scale models they have produced are stunning – helmets for Ridley Scott’s film Prometheus film – optically clear, fully functional helmets manufactured from resin and a model of an 860 Monza Mille Miglia 1956 made from resin, white metal and rubber. They also deal in artwork and there is a magnificent three-metre, 400kg shark by Pascal Haudressy, which will form part of the welcome exhibition at the Made in the Midlands event at Wolverhampton Racecourse.
It will also be on show at the Birmingham Made Me exhibition at Millennium Point from June 6 to 21.
CMA’s requirement for production and storage space is tangible proof of their success. It will help them cope with ever-increasing worldwide art orders and rapid prototyping contracts. The company has also invested in more plant and equipment.
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So when borrowing is difficult, when the government is introducing rafts of measures to turn the economy round with varied results and U-turns, what is the secret of the success of this small company beavering away in the suburbs of Birmingham?
Peter said: “This has been the second expansion of premises that we have undertaken in the last 12 months which, as you may imagine, has not been easy to orchestrate whilst keeping the various arms of the business seamlessly carrying on production – but we have done it.
“And, frankly, our success is down to sheer hard work. We are winning a lot of work back from China and we believe this is based on quality, service, price and the ability to deliver on time.
“We also recognised some years ago that we were missing many tricks and have now filled that gap by overtly promoting ourselves continually through the web, e-shots and exhibitions. We also cannot be complacent, hence the need for us to recruit talented artists who can keep us at the cutting edge. And we have done this purely without support from any funds or schemes.”
I cite CMA’s story to demonstrate the tremendous diversity of Birmingham’s business offer and their determination to succeed in the most difficult of circumstances.
What they and other companies are doing in this region is among the factors that have helped Britain steer away from a triple-dip recession.
And much of that credit goes to the private sector which has shown tremendous resilience in attempting to increase business and boost employment in the region.
The latest Birmingham Chamber economic survey showed that confidence is on the up and we are seeing businesses getting more confident to recruit people and invest in their products or services – just like the tangible proof provided by CMA.
* Jerry Blackett is chief executive of the Birmingham Chamber Group