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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2016
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Industry
IT has been a busy five years since
Robert Brown, Chris Nettleship and
Douglas Hunt took over the helm of
high-performance lubricant specialist
Metalube. This diligent trio has made
huge strides into the wire and cable
market and evolved into new market
sectors, while the infectious ambition
has firmly integrated itself across the
whole company.
Not only has Metalube grown in size, it
has also been awarded two of the UK’s
highest business accolades with a
Queen’s Award for Enterprise in
International Trade 2013 and a Queen’s
Award for Enterprise for Innovation
2014. This year it was also awarded the
ISO 14001 certification, the international
standard
for
environmental
management systems (EMS) and the
most widely used in the world.
Managing director Robert Brown said:
“Metalube was already in a great
position when we bought the business
back in 2011 and we are very lucky to
have its founder, David Lee, still working
with us today. David represents our
interests in South East Asia and is a
non-executive director. He adds enor-
mous value to the company and we are
grateful for his continued input and
support.”
One the of first priorities back in 2011
was to update Metalube’s corporate
identity with the launch of a streamlined
logo, new barrels and brochures as well
as a modern, well-designed website
available in English, Chinese and
Portuguese.
The company’s ‘Global Specialists in
High-Performance Lubricants’ promise
was also unveiled. This new branding is
now visible across all the company’s
literature as well as at the many trade
shows it attends worldwide.
The company also invested in SAP ERP,
software that is specifically designed for
worldwide organisations. SAP now
encompasses all areas of the business
from accounts, sales and customer
relationship management to material
resource planning and quality control.
Principally an exporter, Metalube
sends over 90 per cent of the
lubricant
it
manufactures
in
Manchester, UK, overseas. Over the
past five years, the company strategy
has been to expand via country
investment. The existing Shanghai,
China, office has grown significantly
and there are now new offices in
Dongguan and in Hong Kong.
Amit Gupte set up Metalube India in
2011, which has gone from strength to
strength with India now being one of the
company’s biggest markets. A former
development chemist in the Manchester
laboratory, Mohd Shahrin Abu Bakar
returned to his home in Malaysia in
2013 and has proved a valuable
addition to the South East Asia team
working as a technical sales engineer in
the region.
After a long and drawn out process in
2014, an ANP Licence to trade in Brazil
was granted with a subsequent office
opening in São Paulo led by general
manager Ricardo Neves.
This year, Metalube Arabia was also
launched with an office in Dubai headed
by Nick Pomeroy, and a partnership
was made between Metalube and
Fusion Chemicals in the USA.
Douglas Hunt, commercial director,
said: “We are really pleased by how well
our strategy to invest in local people on
the ground in our key markets has
been. Our customers can now be
Growth, development and expansion
❍
Directors, from left, Doug Hunt, Robert Brown and Chris Nettleship
❍
The new premises at Metalube in Manchester, UK