Barry Riley. An obituary.

I would like to use the opportunity in this month’s blog to pay tribute to my father, Barry Riley, who passed away in August.

He had been involved in the UK surface finishing sector for six decades and was a well-known figure in the industry. He was also a much-loved father and grandfather and will be greatly missed by all our extended family.

Our company’s origins go back as far as the 1940s, when Barry’s father founded a general industrial machinery merchants known as Lambert Smith & Co. This company was to forge a profitable association with a large, Birmingham-based copper/nickel/chrome electro-plating supplier to the automotive industry. He bought their redundant plant and machinery and resold it to jobbing shops around the city. This allowed the Riley family business to develop its important speciality serving the coating and finishing sectors.

In 1966, Barry himself picked up the baton by starting Barry Riley & Sons. The company began life by renting a small unit from British Rail under the archways near Snow Hill station in central Birmingham, later re-locating to the famous Taylor & Challon industrial complex on Constitution Hill close to W.Canning and Birmingham’s world-famous jewellery quarter in Hockley.

During the great nickel shortage of the late 1960s, the enterprising Barry Riley developed a lucrative service buying excess nickel stock from the Pianoforte surface finishing company and delivering it by flatbed Ford Transit to the many small independent electro-plating companies that were around at that time. This provided the working capital for the company to become a stockist of used plating and finishing machinery, which it began to trade all over the UK.

Riley Industries, which became the company’s trading subsidiary, enjoyed successful growth throughout the 1970s and 80s, eventually re-locating to Perry Barr, near Aston Villa football stadium and the 60s monstrosity of ‘Spaghetti Junction’, the hub of the UK motorway network. I joined the company after attending engineering college in the early 1980s, taking over as managing director in the mid-1990s.

Barry subsequently became chairman of the company and was fully involved in a strategic role up until his death. He was instrumental in moving the business to our new location in Aldridge on the outskirts of Birmingham in 2006, seeing the potential in a new factory that offered greater floor space, easier vehicle access and improved proximity to the M6 toll motorway.

He could be a hard taskmaster, who was not afraid to challenge business decisions and actions that were not to his liking. Although he did not belong to the tech-savvy generation, he was the first person in the early 2000s to identify the need for a fully interactive and internationally focussed website as the best way forward for the company, a decision that has been vindicated many times over.

It is my belief that, due to the solid foundations laid by my father, we are now seeing the development of Riley Surface World into a global force in the surface finishing industry, with a wide marketing reach and a hard-working and dedicated support team.

I know that he was very proud of the progress we had made, and optimistic about the future prospects for the UK finishing sector. He could see that, after a difficult few years, conditions were starting to approach what they were over 40 years ago, when Birmingham was the world centre metal finishing. The best tribute that we can make to him is to carry on doing what we do best, not just for the benefit of Riley Surface World, but for the UK industry as a whole.

How Social Media can help your company become a global player

This month’s column tackles the almost impenetrable subject of social media and what relevance it has to our business. In that, I don’t just mean Riley Surface World, but what I would define as the whole, global product finishing family.

First of all, I must confess to being a dinosaur in this respect. Whilst I understand our own website and what it does and can find my way around an iPad, I have seldom, if ever, looked at Twitter, Facebook, Linked-in or any of the other leading social media platforms. Indeed, until recently, I had never booked flights online and still prefer to use a travel agent.

However, thanks to having a proactive marketing company and some staff under the age of 35, we have somehow managed to accumulate around 500 followers on Twitter and I personally have a regular presence on Blogger where, if you’re desperate for bedtime reading, you can take in the full archive of these articles!

My observation is that, in the industrial sector, big companies are much better at this sort of thing than small ones. This is because they treat social media seriously and recognise its potential, unlike most of us who see it as a rather frivolous, mainly recreational pursuit. (In consumer products, the reverse may be the case, as many small companies are building their business models entirely using social media.)

Our Twitter feed regularly includes entries from the big brand names in the industry, posting their latest products, promotions, videos, case studies, exhibitions and much more. To be devoting such resources to this fledgling media must be bearing some fruit. But how can it be measurable?

I think the simple answer is that it can’t. To go back to the old adage: ‘Half of my advertising budget is wasted; the problem is I don’t know which half.’ In the case of Twitter, I don’t believe I can quantify a single transaction that has resulted from this activity. But we persist for a number of reasons.

Firstly, there is the question of reputation. Twitter provides almost unfettered freedom of expression and allows individuals and companies to set their own agenda. Such a facility is priceless in this monogamous culture that we all inhabit. So, we must take advantage of such freedom. We may not necessarily achieve the reputation that we aspire to, but if not we only have ourselves to blame.

Secondly, we must be prepared for the future. The great economist, J K Galbraith once said: ‘I find most things difficult to predict, especially the future.’ None of us knows just what the future holds for our industry. Already we see change accelerating due to advances in chemistry, technology, legislation and the volatility of world markets. The only certainty is that change is constant and getting faster.

So, how much better it is to keep abreast of change by being part of the rolling dialogue. Vehicles such as Twitter give us an insight into what the latest trends are, who the movers and shakers are, what important events are taking place and how it will all impact on our businesses and our lives.

At Riley’s, our hungry beast is partially fed by the demise of defunct companies that didn’t see the next big thing coming over the horizon. Maybe if they’d been better at Twitter they would have survived and prospered, we will never know.

All of this is being played out on a global scale. Recently, we enabled the sale and shipment of a large electroplating plant from Ireland to Canada. Just this week, our client posted an interview with CBC Canada radio about the project on Twitter, turning it into an international news story.

And just in case you are not following us yet, we are @RILEYSURFACEW.

Riley helps Canadian musical accessories manufacturer with its expansion into product finishing.

Riley Surface World has recently enabled the sale and shipment of a complete Delta Industrietechnik copper/acid electroplating line for Billdidit, a specialist manufacturing organisation based in Nova Scotia, Canada.

‘Billdidit’ is a reference to the company’s founder, Bill Coady, who has designed and developed a number of useful accessories for drum kits that are used by famous drummers all over the world.

The company is now part of the Sabian group, one of the world’s leading producers of cymbals.

Billdidit has another division, BDI Advanced Manufacturing, which is engaged in contract manufacturing for the aerospace, defence, intelligence and marine industries, producing a large selection of proprietary components, from metal and plastic parts to final product finishing. The company is currently undergoing ISO 9000 accreditation.

 The redundant Delta electroplating line was acquired, with the help of Riley’s, from the site of a former costume jewellery manufacturer in Ireland. It will be used for chrome and zinc plating by volume and for silver and gold plating in smaller quantities.

The system comprises three sizes of tanks: 600, 1200 and 2400 litres. The 600 litre tanks are predominantly used for the non-electrolytic processes, dragout and rinse stations. The larger tanks are used for the electrolytic stations, with either 3 or 6 flight bars in operation at any one time. 

The automatic transporter system carries three flight bars at a time. It uses a horizontal positioning system to close the centre line distance of the flight bars to 150 mm for the tanks without anodic and cathodic connections. This brings the bars outwards to 380 mm whilst in the electrolytic stages, giving a maximum envelope size of 1300 x 300 x 800 mm per flight bar.

A technical support team from Riley Surface World is set to install and re-commission the plant at the company’s Nova Scotia headquarters during summer 2014.

Commenting on the project, John Aylward, Billdidit Vice President of Operations said:

‘Whilst price was obviously an important factor in the purchase of the electroplating plant, we also made our decision based on the professionalism, technical expertise and flexibility that we experienced from Michael Riley and his support team. Not only have we made a very worthwhile investment in plant and machinery, we also believe we have found a partner who will help us to realise our expansion plans in the metal finishing sector, both in North America and worldwide.'

Costume jewellery, the £130 billion global industry

When our company first started trading in the mid-1960s, Britain, and especially Birmingham, had a booming jewellery manufacturing industry. The Hockley jewellery quarter, now primarily a museum destination, led the world in high end and high volume jewellery production.

Last year saw the demise of one of the last remaining high volume costume jewellery manufacturers in the British Isles, Andersen’s of Limerick. It is an undisputable fact that a major share of the world’s fashion jewellery production is nowadays centred on the Asia Pacific and South East Asia regions. Countries such as China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and Vietnam now hold sway.

The value of the market in international terms is mind-boggling. India alone has a £10 billion organised and unorganised market for precious, semi-precious and artificial jewellery. As this represents just an 8% global share, we are looking at a total world market of something like £130 billion, give or take a billion or two. If the UK had held on to its historical industry, the tax revenues generated today would comfortably pay for a very large number of schools and hospitals.

The industry is not without its controversies. Just as in the production of cheap clothing in countries like Bangladesh, employers are castigated for exploiting cheap labour and using potentially harmful toxic materials in finished products. A recent batch of products from China, for example, were found to contain unsafe levels of cadmium, a sobering thought next time you are buying presents for your teenage daughter.

As with many industries, the UK and other European countries still lead the world in fashion jewellery design and brand awareness. Paris is one of the best places for designers and you can find many workshops and studios in Montmartre and Marais. There is no doubt that Europe possesses the top design skills. It also represents, along with the USA, the top market for volume consumption, with specialist retail outlets on every high street and an insatiable demand for the cheapest possible bling.

Jewellery is almost unique as a manufacturing industry in that it employs a disproportionate number of finishing processes in its production. A typical costume jewellery production facility will involve precious metal and other compound metal electroplating, pre-treatments, ultrasonic cleaning, vibratory barrelling and centrifugal polishing, heat treatments, effluent water treatment and much more.

These are all skills that the UK and Europe has in abundance. So we have changed from being producers of the final products to being manufacturers of the machinery that makes the final products. Our expertise is also in demand to train our Asian counterparts in the skills needed to produce products that have high quality finishes, are robust in construction and safe for the consumer.

Our company regularly makes sales to the Asia Pacific region, including items such as process plants, mass finishing machinery, cleaning systems and water treatment plants. It is turning into one of our most vibrant export markets.

Later this year, the Singapore Surface Finishing Association is hosting Surfin 2014, a conference and exhibition for the surface finishing industry in the entire Asia Pacific region. With the historical ties that Singapore has to the UK, it would be beneficial if some of our companies would participate in this important event for the industry. Asia is the new frontier, and we ignore it at our peril.

Annual investment allowance increased to £500,000.00 until 2015

Businesses looking to invest in a tax-efficient way have been handed a boost by measures outlined in the Budget 2014 set of announcements.

The Annual Investment Allowance (AIA), which allows businesses to invest in new plant and machinery for maximum tax benefits, was initially cut from £100,000 to £25,000 by the coalition.

However, in an effort to provide more tax aid to businesses, chancellor George Osborne has improved on its increase to £250,000 in 2012 by doubling it. Going forward, the AIA has been extended to 2015 and will now be worth £500,000.

The AIA is a kind of capital allowance, which offers tax relief at 100 per cent on qualifying expenditure in the year of purchase. The maximum businesses can deduct from your taxable profits is now set to be £500,000. This pro-rates for short or long periods, and also for periods that span the operative dates and rates of allowance. 

Vince McLoughlin, partner at Russell New, says, 'The government needed to make it easier for small and medium sized businesses to access funding to maintain the perceived growth in the economy. 

'The temporary limit of £250,000 [of the AIA] would have ended in December. Without an increase, then businesses would have been rushing to maximise the opportunities to use their AIA by planning the timing of their capital expenditure across the rest of this year.'

More on the Annual Investment Allowance:

• Autumn Statement 2012: Ten-fold increase to AIA
• What is the AIA?
• Top eight tax breaks for business owners

The cost to implement the policy is set to be £2 billion, but is a reflection of the government's desire to back businesses which are looking to invest. According to the chancellor, some 99.8 per cent of businesses will pay no tax on investment.

Frank Nash, tax partner at Blick Rothenberg, comments, 'The generous extension and enhancement of the investment allowance for businesses is necessary because so much projected growth is based on UK infrastructure projects.

'All suppliers in the chain will require these tax allowances indefinitely. Hopefully the previously inadequate £25,000 cap is consigned to history.'

World’s 1st Process Industry Magazine App now available on all major devices

Process Industry Informer, a leading magazine serving the UK process engineering industries, has today announced that its Magazine App is now available across all major tablet devices: iPads, Android Tablets and Amazon Kindle.

Following the successful launch of their iPad Newsstand App at the end of 2013, the popular App has now been integrated with Google Play and Amazon app stores.

The tablet version offers a completely new reading experience, allowing readers to quickly and easily navigate to features and news sections, with the ability to bookmark, email articles and contact suppliers with one touch of an icon.

There is additional content on the tablet version compared to the printed edition, where subscribers can read popular website features such as Top Tips and In The Hot Seat in their entirety.

The software partner used to build the App is an advanced service using the latest tablet technology to increase the usability over standard magazine app software. Advanced features include audio, video, 3D animation and image galleries which PII will be taking full advantage with in future issues

Scan the QR Code below to download to your device:

You can also subscribe to the printed and/or digital editions of PII via their website:http://www.processindustryinformer.com/process-engineering-magazine

For further information call 01428 75 11 88 or email info@piimag.com

Re-shoring, the new buzzword that masks a growing trend in UK manufacturing

Politicians, the media and other people of influence are often guilty of inventing rather ugly and ponderous key phrases in the search for a successful soundbite. Some of the worst ones that come to mind include: ’Get More for your Monergy’, ‘The Big Society’ and ‘Hard Working Families’.

The latest fad in relation to British business is the phrase ‘Re-shoring’. I don’t know whether this was dreamt up by the prime minister or some bright spark at UKTI, but it is another rather clumsy phrase that masks a very important trend taking place in UK manufacturing industry.

What it represents is the actions of those manufacturers that had previously outsourced (another ugly word) a great deal of their production overseas, primarily to low-cost labour countries such as China, India, Mexico etc. They are now bringing large parts of it back to the UK. It is significant that, in the last three years, one in six companies have made this important change.

There are various reasons for this. Companies are keen to improve the quality of their components and finished products. They also want to secure their supply chains and to improve certainty and speed of delivery.

Furthermore, the phrase ‘Made in Britain’ is once more being perceived as a badge of quality to be worn with pride. This country has a world-class science and research base and a highly skilled workforce. Our universities are among the best in the world and thanks to a re-think on educational priorities, we are now seeing a return to popularity of courses in the science, engineering and business oriented disciplines.

Another significant statistic is that, in the last ten years, our exports to non-EU countries have grown by 100%. So, as we bring production back home, we are improving the balance of trade by selling our products to many of the countries that previously made them for us!

In the surface finishing industry, many of my colleagues are reporting an upsurge in the commissioning of new electroplating, e-coating, powder coating and vibratory finishing plants, as well as an increased demand for other ancillary machinery. The investments that are being made in the UK can only benefit our industry, as we have so many skilled people here in this field.

At the same time, new finishing plants that are being built overseas frequently draw upon the expertise of British plant designers, builders, chemical engineers and consultants to achieve the same high standards of process and production that we enjoy at home. Our industry can genuinely claim to be one of Britain’s major export success stories.

One of the few downsides to this whole scenario is our over-inflated energy prices, a consequence of political meddling in what should be a national resource and the volatility of global energy markets. At the time of writing this article, this could all be exacerbated by the unfolding crisis in Ukraine, so let’s pray for a peaceful solution.

Right now, I’m off back to the office for a spot of re-shoring. Keep up the good work!