NEBusiness Interview with Geoff Ford 19/04/2010

Manufacturing group Ford is celebrating its centenary year, having survived two world wars and two fires. Christopher Knox meets Geoff Ford, third-generation chairman and the man known as Mr South Tyneside.

IT'S hard not to admire Geoff Ford, not just for the support he has given to the South Tyneside business community, but for the way he has endeavoured to maintain Ford's position as one of the area's biggest employers, despite the kind of challenges that would have put lesser operations out of business.

Such dedication to the cause has seen him appointed to a number of high-profile positions, including chairman of the South Tyneside Committee of the North East Chamber of Commerce and head of the South Tyneside Manufacturing Forum, which he set up.

His efforts have also received the royal seal of approval, with the Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2007 and an MBE in 2008.

Despite this lofty position, and the fact that he has grown Ford's turnover from £330,000 to £10m since taking over the reins in 1974, he insists there remains a lot of unfinished business.

He said: "I may be 66 but I have no desire to be put out to grass just yet. Although the company is 100 years old, there are a lot of challenges which I feel I can help the company to overcome, particularly as it rebuilds itself following the recession.

"Anyway, Mrs Ford wouldn't have me sitting around the house all day, so I have to do something."

The Ford group, which manufactures small components for the aerospace industry at Tyne Dock, South Shields, and for other sectors at its site in Hebburn, was founded by Mr Ford's grandfather Robert Ford, who started up with two staff after receiving £25 worth of investment from each of his Freemason colleagues.

Although the business proved successful early on, and Robert Ford was able to pay back his investors, it may never have been founded if it wasn't for an accident that he sustained in 1909 at his former employers Newton and Nicholson.

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