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The boss of Brother 海角视频 has revealed how Covid forced him to make a 鈥減ainful鈥� decision over staff redundancies, but that he predicts a bright future for the firm - which still has strong links with previous partner Manchester City.

Phil Jones MBE is managing director of the famed printer, scanner and sewing machine maker, known by many as the 1990s shirt sponsor of City - an 鈥渋conic鈥� shirt Mr Jones believes to still be the club鈥檚 second best-selling.

In an exclusive interview with BusinessLive, Mr Jones laid out how the Tameside firm, whose parent company鈥檚 headquarters are based in Japan, dealt with the global pandemic.

According to Mr Jones, his initial approach was one of caution - and he said because of that, the Audenshaw business has still to this day not taken a penny of Government support.

He said: 鈥淚 made the decision very early on that our financial resources were very good, we had a really strong balance sheet and good cash reserves. I was lucky in that sense.

鈥淪o I made the decision not to draw on any government support whatsoever.

鈥淎lthough we sent everyone to work from home in the very first instance, we still continued to pay full wages.

鈥淥ne thing I've learned is you've got to do a bit of strategic sensing - not overreact, and you've got to let situations play out a bit.鈥�

Mr Jones gave it six months before making significant changes following an extensive review of business - which meant 17 employees - 10% of the workforce - losing their jobs.

鈥淚t meant we could have a better view of the landscape.

鈥淎t the half year point I ran a reorganisation where we reviewed the entire organisation and approximately 10% of our work force departed.

鈥淭hat was quite painful. But from my point of view, it was about making sure that we've got the right cost organisation for the future.鈥�

He said the pandemic had been a 鈥済ame of two halves鈥� for Brother, adding: 鈥淭he first half saw people buy printers and they were almost becoming the toilet roll of the technology industry with how fast they were being sold.

鈥淭he sales of our home office printers were going through the roof, at the same time that the sale of our office printers was crashing through the floor, which was interesting.

鈥淭hen we were then dealing with the fact the supply chain couldn't restock what we sold - there were big problems at the ports, ships weren't sailing, and all of these supply chain issues were really exposed.鈥�

While Mr Jones is positive for the future, Brother is not yet out of the woods - and he expects some of those issues to continue.

鈥淚 am a positive pragmatist. I've been around a long time, and I've been through many difficult times in my working career, including things like the financial crash, devaluation of the pound.

鈥淲e鈥檝e got great optimism. The pandemic has given us an opportunity to really reshape the business and reorientate our people, and allowed us to demonstrate our value to the people who work with us in our internal community, and our external community too.

鈥淏ut there are still Covid-related issues.

鈥淥ne of the little-known impacts in global supply chains at the moment is there are a lot of empty containers sat in ports in Europe.

鈥淎s a result, the ports are very congested. And as a result, we're not getting goods through the ports anywhere near the pace that we would normally do.

鈥淎dd into that the difficulties that all ports now have with regards to Brexit, and that means many of our inbound deliveries are delayed by up to one month.鈥�

Mr Jones, who has spoken in the past about how , also touched on the firm鈥檚 relationship with City.

Brother has a long-running connection with the club currently sitting top of the Premier League, having appeared as the main sponsor on the iconic sky blue shirts between 1987 and 1999.

The partnership was certainly helped by City fans Noel and Liam Gallagher, who did various photoshoots wearing the shirts - promotions that mean fans still wear, buy and look out for the retro shirts to this day.

Mr Jones said: 鈥淲e look back very fondly on that period. It was special.

鈥淲hen I joined the company in 鈥�94, obviously that sponsorship was still in play, and I used to go to Maine Road and do some of the Man of the Match awards, which was absolutely fabulous.

鈥淏ut all good things must come to an end. It served us so well. I think what's amazing is that even today, the fans still associate Brother with the club.

鈥淚 still believe it's the second best-selling shirt in-store.鈥�

He said the images of the former Oasis pair are now 鈥渋conic鈥�, adding: 鈥淚t鈥檚 over 20 years since we finished that sponsorship, but actually, those pictures still appear regularly in the media, and people still talk about them.

鈥淚 think it did a really good job for us. And I wish the club ever so well.鈥�

Sheikh Mansour bought the club in 2008, and since then, it has gone on to achieve astonishing success, winning trophy after trophy.

But Mr Jones said he wasn鈥檛 bitter that the takeover came just years after the Brother logo was removed from the shirts, in 1999.

He said: 鈥淚t's fantastic that they did get that new sponsorship, and they've gone to this amazing success. I don't think we could actually afford to be the shirt sponsor nowadays, in all honesty.鈥�

As well as an obvious fondness for City, Mr Jones also had kind words for Manchester itself - and its business community.

鈥淲e've been here since 鈥�68, so we've got our roots firmly down - and there's no plan to change that right now.

鈥淲hat I love about Manchester most is actually as a business community, people are very supportive of each other, and it's very easy to get things done and to get connected with people.

鈥淚t's a very supportive community compared to the South, where there's still a great competitiveness and perhaps an arch rivalry sometimes.

鈥淗ere in Greater Manchester and the North West, people are actually far more open to collaboration, and actually lifting the region as a whole, as an entire community.

鈥淚've always liked that and hopefully I've been adopted now after being up here since 1995.鈥�