Brown Brothers, Northampton
When Rearsby lost all its Ford car business, mainly hand brake levers, as a result of the inept SU-Butec presentation in Dearborn, USA, most of our Ford car business was resourced to our deadly rival, Brown Brothers, Northampton.
February 1982. We receive a call from Ford asking if it is true we are no longer part of BL. Ford told us they had been informed by Brown Bros., owned by Dana Corporation, that it was to be closed forthwith. Fiesta, Escort and Transit handbrake levers were supplied from there. Ford were highly concerned. Northampton appeared to be in chaos; full cooperation was not forthcoming from local management, in spite of commitments to the contrary. Supplies to Ford were under threat. Would we like to quote for the business again? Yes, indeed. I suggested I met a Ford buyer there immediately (to get authority to enter and gain cooperation from local management) and determine the situation for myself. I was sure we could help.
The prospect of regaining the lost handbrake business, plus more, was a big motivator. And we could become a Ford car supplier once again, at a stroke! And I could walk round a deadly rival. A unique opportunity.
It was late afternoon when I arrived at Brown Bros. Chaos indeed reigned, workers were leaving. They had been served redundancy notices and once any employee had prospect of employment elsewhere in prosperous Northampton, they simply left. There was no MD in place. He'd gone. A harassed chap called Clarke, the Manufacturing Manager, was the most senior on site. There was a continuous stream of people, internal colleagues, other customers, suppliers etc outside his office.
I suggested to the Ford buyer, a somewhat junior and ‘wet rag’, that he needed to establish some authority. “You are the most important Brown Bros. customer. Make sure we get to see Clarke.” In the meantime, I walked the shop floor unimpeded. The products and processes were all very familiar. The only thing different was that they had their own in-house zinc passivating plant. Interesting. The place was an undisciplined filthy mess. No one, understandably, cared anymore. I could see visible labour shortages. I befriended, as best I could, those good people who were trying to produce.
I met Clarke. I led the discussions. He was a decent man handed the sh***y end of a stick. I learned he was trying to set up his own business out of the ashes of Brown Bros., centered on a range of simple gear levers for Land Rover. I was sympathetic. He was losing his job too.
I informed the Ford buyer I would report back to his senior buyer first thing in the morning. I had an idea. We needed to win this on style. Be different. Be brilliant.
I returned to Rearsby in the early evening. Don was waiting.
I proposed we offered Ford to put our own supervision and progressively, our own labour into Brown Bros., to run all Ford production there. We could then assure supply to maintain Ford vehicle build. Furthermore, we would build up a stock of handbrakes to enable us to transfer production to Rearsby. To ensure the transfer went smoothly, I would propose not only lifting the Ford owned tooling out, but would buy the machine tools in which the tooling was installed. This should give Ford confidence we could do it and in a very short time window. Unplug, lift up, transport, drop down in Rearsby. Plug in power and air. Off we go, with the same Rearsby labour who had been at Brown Bros. The variables were much reduced. Job done, QED. Style!
This as a plan, especially Rearsby putting supervision and labour into Brown Bros., was accepted in principle by Ford the following day. With the caveat, that they were not awarding the orders for the Ford products to Rearsby. We had to supply competitive prices and tool costs (if any), against other competitive Ford suppliers. It was a no-brainer for Ford. We deliberately didn’t mention any cost of running the production at Northampton. We would resolve that later. Rearsby would have the momentum. I knew we would be in the vanguard. I contacted a retired Rearsby Deputy Superintendent, Rod Jones. Was he up for being our man at Brown Bros for a week or two. He was previously directly responsible for handbrake assembly. And old school. Tough. He was keen for a challenge.
I took him down the next day. Chaos ruled. Ford had (I assumed) contacted Clarke with 'The Plan'. Rod and I walked the facility. I met with Clarke somewhat concerned, emphasising we were going to at least get Ford Motor Company off his back. Take some of the load. Managing the situation and supplying much needed labour at no cost to Brown Bros. He would have time to plan his own business start-up. He saw issues but also sense. We would get support.
As I was leaving the Sales Manager, whom I knew was hoping to join Clarke's team of setting up the gear-lever business, pulled me aside and pointedly warned me that if Rearsby was to receive any cooperation in Northampton, I could take all the Ford handbrakes, except one! The P100 South African pickup umbrella under-dash handbrake lever?! At this stage, I didn’t know it existed?
Ford had, in the meantime, dispatched all drawings of all Brown Bros handbrake production to Rearsby for quoting purposes. Upon returning to Rearsby I asked Alf Saunders(long-service and self-proclaimed leader of the ‘A Team’), our Chief Estimator, to go through the drawings of the South African handbrake. Complex and (at 10,000/annum) low volume. Not a great deal of interest to Rearsby under normal circumstances. It wasn't fully tooled up at Brown Bros yet. I asked Alf to give me a quick estimate of our selling price. Reluctantly he did. Not to the nearest 0.001 of a penny, but to the nearest 50p. I knew he would find that hard. Two days later, he said £3.60, certainly less than £4.
I took Joe Eames with me to Brown Bros. I didn't like being threatened. I smelt stinky fish over this handbrake. Plus Rod Jones, to whom we had supplied a vehicle to collect operators from Rearsby daily, was feeding back that cooperation forthcoming was at best variable in Northampton. Clarke made Joe and I wait nearly two hours. Whilst waiting, I spotted the XJS ‘drop-down’ handbrake. I worked out Jaguar knew nothing of the Brown Bros. situation. This handbrake was overly complex and very low volume, the latter, not a Rearsby strength. I did, however phone Jaguar to make them aware.
Once in his office, I opened by asking just how much did Clarke know about Rearsby? “Not much, you are a press shop in Leicester making handbrakes” was the response.
“Mr Clarke, let me educate you. Handbrakes represent less than 10% of sales, as does presswork. We have machine shops, heat treatment, welding of all types, paint plants and assembly facilities. Plus in-house design, development and test. Other products include pedal box, clutch steering, gearshift mechanisms, both manual and auto and it includes Transit gear levers at 800/day. Also the chassis members for Land Rover, plus all their handbrakes and pedal boxes.“Now Mr Clarke, if I choose I can propose to Land Rover that Rearsby, as an existing no risk supplier, takes the Land Rover gear-lever production out of here to Rearsby. We could locate it in a corner. Why should Land Rover risk a new start-up supplier with no substance behind it? You will have no business to set up.
“Your Sales Manager saw fit to threaten me with zero cooperation in our efforts to help you to supply Ford. In practice, my man here reports cooperation is less than enthusiastic. Know Clarke, I think things are about to change and immediately. Don't you?”
He was visibly unsettled and I saved my trump card until last.“I want to see the current Ford handbrake selling price and right now.”
I hadn't warned Joe Eames I was going to do this. His jaw dropped.
Clarke didn't know what to do. He was dithering. Trying to think through the chess game I had placed before him. I pressed him and asked him to make up his mind. He rose to his feet and said, give me five minutes. He returned with a print out.
The Escort Lever was incredibly tight at £1.02. The Transit and Fiesta were not far from the prices we sold them for previously. The South African was a whopping £10!
"I don't think your Sales Manger will be joining your new venture?" I observed. Clarke said, “No, I thought that would be the case.” The South African lever was the Sales Manager’s entrance ticket. I informed Clarke, that I anticipated a step change in cooperation. He complained he'd been left out to dry, with no support from Dana.
When I returned to Rearsby I telephoned the most senior Ford buyer I knew. I explained I had people in Brown Bros. working hard ensuring Ford production was maintained. However, cooperation from within was far less than ideal. I was aware Dana was not a big player in terms of supplying Ford of Europe, but that certainly wouldn't be the case in the U.S. I suggested a call was in order to Dearborn Purchasing, explaining Ford of Europe was being badly let down by Dana. Over the next 48 hours, there was a remarkable change in attitude in Northampton. Clarke told me he received assurances of additional support from Dana, right out of the blue!"Oh, that's good news!” I said.
Back at Rearsby, the team worked through the estimates unusually and uniquely, able to compare them with current Brown Bros. prices. The South African handbrake was a good price but volumes were low, tooling incomplete and yet to enter production. Escort volumes were high. But the price was very tight. Less than we would have quoted. We were aware it was also tooled up in Germany by Edschwar, our big European competitor. They would love 100% of the volume.
But Ford at that time, pre-AJ (After Japan - their later big study of Japanese automotive industry practice) liked the security of multi-sourcing. I took the view, Ford were happy with the overall package they got from Brown Bros. in terms of pricing. They hadn't expected the Dana decision to close Northampton. We desperately needed to return to being a Tier 1 Ford supplier and come back in from the cold. Returning to Ford would reduce reliance on BL.
More importantly, we needed additional sales volume to defray overhead expense. Frank argued we should only go in with our cost-plus price based upon the estimate. Don, Joe, John-Henry and I argued the customer and market set the selling price. The Escort handbrake at the current £1.02 would contribute £250,000 pa towards overheads. It could not be ignored. Set the price too far from the current level it would move Ford towards Edschwar, probably securing a price-reduction from them, in return for 100% of volume.
We went in with a mix of prices, not identical to Brown Bros., but within spitting distance. This enabled those in Ford Purchasing who were for us (remember we were a new company in February/March 1982) to argue our case.
We were given the orders, provided there were no hiccups on the transfer of production to Rearsby. I did a deal with Clarke buying some machine tools, but learned a 160 tonne Taylor & Challen power press had been earmarked for another Dana plant. I said, “OK, we will lift it out of Northampton with the tools in situ, run it at Rearsby to keep Ford happy and transfer the tooling to one of our HME presses, then ship the press at our expense to the Dana plant. Agreed.” I also (to John-Henry Harris' consternation), bought the zinc plating plant for £5k! Another challenge on its way! I was keen to avoid shipping parts for plating to and fro and back again in the West Midlands!
The key weekend came up. We had built up three days stock. Ford wanted two weeks. We ran production on Friday and in the late afternoon began lifting the plant out, transporting to Rearsby. This was something I had done on larger scale at Longbridge many times and on much larger projects. We, as Rearsby had taken out the Land Rover side members.
I arranged for Rearsby personnel and contractors, to work 24x7 Friday, Saturday and Sunday. By mid-Saturday all the plant was in situ at Rearsby. By early afternoon it was being connected to services and soon thereafter, first-offs were produced and passed. During that evening, through the night and all through Sunday we were producing parts, painting and assembling product. The first deliveries were made, as per normal on Monday.
Bob Steel**, Senior Ford Purchasing manager, telephoned me on Monday morning to say he'd been dreading a phone call all weekend, but it never came! He thanked us for a job superbly executed. Rearsby delivered. We were back!
**Bob was the same buyer who years before, had asked Rearsby to double Bobcat (Fiesta) production over-night, following a big technical cock-up by Edschwar in the 70s on quadrant/pawl production. (Quadrant = handbrake mounting bracket, housing the ratchet teeth. Pawl = the single or double tooth engaging in the quadrant teeth). Rearsby also supplied Edschwar with quadrants/pawls for their own production. Bob thanked Rearsby then for solely maintaining Ford of Europe's Fiesta production.