The will to succeed

I must admit I was very nervous for Kate and Jack Edwards when I initially visited them back in 2010.

The brother and sister partnership are co-directors of Midlands-based J8 Precision and I think someone forgot to tell them four years ago when they decided to start their company that the UK was in the middle of the worst recession ever. In every respect this was not a good time to start an engineering business. Manufacturing was struggling big time and the priority for most companies was quite literally survival. Batten down the hatches, hang onto your workforce and try and ride the storm was all anyone could do.

I was nervous because the odds were definitely stacked against Kate and Jack (then 32 and 24 respectively). J8 had risen like a phoenix from the closure of their parents’ company Edwards Precision Engineering and the pressure on the siblings was undoubtedly considerable – although I suspect they didn’t really realise this at the time. I found myself really wanting them to succeed. If they could weather the economic turbulence, surely they could make a real go of this?

Actually I needn’t have worried. I went to visit J8 a couple of weeks ago and although Kate and Jack had lost none of their initial youthful determination, drive and utter single mindedness to succeed, this was now complemented by a maturity carved from real world experience, gleaned from the school of hard knocks. It’s clear the pair have worked phenomenally hard over the past four years but it’s also apparent that they’ve learned an awful lot along the way.

And the proof is plain for all to see: turnover and profitability is up; the company is investing regularly in new equipment and the staff headcount (including apprentices) is on the rise. Oh and they’re still really nice people and actually very inspirational. Read more in the issue on page 50.