Market-leading manufacturer of high-quality bathroom, plumbing, and washroom products, Thomas Dudley, has joined the trade association Made in the Midlands to encourage fellow members to get more involved with innovation and policies in the local area.
Based in Dudley, Thomas Dudley was established in 1920 and has a group of integrated businesses that are committed to UK manufacturing, innovations, and service. On top of manufacturing high-quality bathroom products, the firm also produces ductile iron castings to customer specifications.
Martin Dudley, Chairman at Thomas Dudley, wants to encourage more Midlands manufacturers to get involved with innovation, policies, and working together to create a community-like atmosphere within the sector. Martin believes that being part of Made in the Midlands will help them to connect with more businesses with this mindset and understand why others may not be getting involved with this. Martin said:
“In our experience, many trade associations and membership organisations struggle to get SMEs engaged with skills and innovation policies. A particular example of that would be apprenticeships. We want to work out how we can get more businesses, in the Black Country specifically, involved in skills, innovation, and productivity. We have seen a lot of this from Made in the Midlands so far and we hope that the platform can help us in our goal to get more manufacturers involved in these things.”
By being part of the Made in Group, Martin hopes to connect with large SMEs to see if they are working with local schools in their community and are sharing their best practices with other businesses that could benefit from their assistance. Martin continued:
“The Made in the Midlands ethos is very similar to our own - we are eager to get businesses working together to improve the local manufacturing ecosystem. We are also looking forward to offering our advice and expertise to fellow members to help come up with solutions to their business challenges.”
Martin mentioned that members may look forward to connecting with a business that is passionate about manufacturing and who are interested in learning best practices from other manufacturers. He concluded:
“Our main aim is to increase the gross value added in the local area, by supporting skills we can support the local community and their families. Manufacturing creates the majority of value in the local economy and therefore we want to get more large SMEs to share their skills to support this ethos.”
To find out more about Thomas Dudley head to their website: https://www.thomasdudley.co.uk/