Enter ‘the consultant' drafted in 18 months ago to help do just that. So far, under his stewardship, the company has had a complete overhaul, going from what was a somewhat confused offering, to having four clear divisions: The Works, GF Design, Specials and Ready Range.

The divisions

The Works offers sublimation printing and embroidery in house and is now growing as customers are made more aware of it. GF Design offers a digitising service for embroidery designs; while the Ready Range is a range of blank products ready for sublimation, screen print and embroidery, which can be delivered from stock. Specials is Golden Finish's bespoke arm, providing unique products made exactly to customers' specifications. The bespoke side of the business has steadily grown over time as more and more customers come to realise the hassle-free benefits of the service.

Md Philip Gold explains the need for this structural shake-up: "Before the consultant came along we had a good basic concept with the products and service we offered, but we needed clarity in order to move forward.

"Over the years the product range had grown as a result of people asking us ‘Can you do this?' to which we have always replied: ‘Yes'. Eventually we had a mass of service and product offers, which had no cohesion to it and was a bit confusing. So we decided to make it easier for customers to understand our business and which parts they fit into. Being in four divisions, the service offering is now more focused."

So what exactly is the service offering and how has it developed over the years? Essentially Golden Finishes is a sourcing company, which started off finishing badges for printers and embroiderers, but which has gradually grown into more of a one-stop-shop for all promotional needs, explains Philip.

"It all began when someone asked me if I knew anyone who could put an over locked edge on a piece of material," explains Philip. "I didn't, so I decided to get a machine and see if I could do it myself."

After that it was a quick trip to the library for the Yellow Pages, and, armed with a list of screen printers, Philip began sending out letters offering out his over locking service. "From the first 100 letters I had 70 responses! In the first year I did nearly £2,000 worth of work - just from home with a machine by the side of the bed!" he says.

"Then it just snowballed from there and people started asking for more and more things and I kept saying yes!" Eventually the business's growth took it to a business park in Wales, where it now has about 6,000 sq ft of space and employs 29 staff.

"When we started off printers and embroiderers would send us the material for their badges and we did the sewing," explains Philip. "The second phase of growth was supplying the blank item so people could print or embroider it themselves; and the third step was doing the whole job. About 60% of our work now is doing the whole job, and we specialise in badges."

Last year the company expanded into the adjoining unit at its Cardiff base, which created valuable space and allowed a proper distinction between office and production space. There is now a customer service room, digitising room, print room, embroidery room, meeting/training room and a show room. The print room is home to a sublimation machine and wide format printer, while the embroidery room houses around 11 machines - a mixture of 15-head, 16-head, 4-head and single head Tajima, Happy and Toyota models. There is also a state of the art laser cutter to cut the badges out, although as Philip points out, the old clicker press he bought many years ago still works and is on standby for emergencies!

He adds: "I still can't believe how the business is going nearly 30 years on - the orders just keep coming, it's non-stop, but I can't be here forever, which is why we brought the consultant in to create more structure."

One of the aims under the re-structuring of the business is for Philip and his wife Jackie to take a step back from the day to day running of the business and do more project based work. To help them do this a lot of time has gone into upskilling the current workforce. "Whilst we have bought some expertise in, such as a new production manager, we decided to work mainly with the expertise we already have," explains Philip.

This involved asking staff what they felt they were capable of achieving and then providing the necessary training. "The staff are now much more confident and more involved in the running of the business, which is vital to help take this business forward," he says.

Staff have also welcomed, rather than opposed, the changes, as they can see for themselves the benefits of the new way of working. "It's been great to have the staff on board," adds Philip, "in particular Cath Hill, who is now customer service manager, Gerald Williams, our production manager, Halinka Lane, long-standing embroidery manager, and Neville Poole, who runs GF Design.We want to bring those people on in the business - they are its future."

Golden Finishes has a multicultural staff of 29, many of whom have been with the company for five to 10 years. There are 19 in production and 10 customer facing, all of whom have been on time management courses in the past 18 months.

"We've created some efficiencies and clawed back 30% more time/capacity," states Philip. And as testament to this new approach, downstairs the training room is fast filling up with various certificates as staff members complete their new training.

Over the years Philip and the team have built up a strong customer base, which is something that they are keen to preserve and build on for the future. "We only deal with trade customers, never end users," says Philip. "That's important because it has helped us build up trust with our customers. This industry is very much what I call a Mamas and Papas industry and these people want a friendly voice on the end of the phone.We have built our business based on making friends on the phone and have picked up business through referrals."

For Philip it is important that the business doesn't lose this family feel. "We are retaining this integrity and the values of the family business - we will just be more professional and dynamic," he says. Having such an established customer base has had the added benefit of enabling the consultant to focus more on the operational side of the business, rather than having to drum up sales. Indeed, he has approached the issue of new sales leads with caution, as he explains: "We could have opened up the floodgates on sales, but we reined it in a bit to make sure we had the correct structures in place first. You've got to be able to service those customers you already have before going out to find new ones."

However, there are ambitious growth plans in place and the consultant has set a £2.5M sales target for year three, which he claims is "very achievable". He expects each of the divisions to grow at different rates, predicting that Specials and Design will show the most growth, with more stable and steady growth coming from the Works and Ready divisions. "We are not restricting ourselves to the UK in the future either," he says. For Philip, who is seeing his business take on a new lease of life over the past 18 months, it is an exciting time. "We have already changed so much in 18 months," he says. "I'm as excited now as I was 30 years ago. My personal role is really exciting because I can facilitate the business, confident in the knowledge that my dynamic and professional staff will take the business forward, whilst retaining its fun, family feel."

Web: http://www.goldenfinishes.com/

Tel: 02920 755 733

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