Spencer Coatings

Spencer Coatings has developed its joint venture in China and improved productivity by hiring international talent

Based in Aberdeen, Spencer Coatings is Scotland's biggest manufacturer of industrial coatings and paints, turning over £7m a year.

It produces and supplies around 2,500 tons a year of coatings to industries including equipment manufacture, agriculture, construction and offshore, where special coatings are needed to protect structures such as pipelines and installations from corrosion.

The company's 75-strong workforce currently includes two Poles, two Spaniards and two managers from Hong Kong and China who are instrumental in managing the company's Chinese joint venture in Shangdong with a division of the government-controlled oil and gas giant, Sinopec.

"Without our Hong Kong guy we couldn't do what we're doing because he's got English and Chinese, although we didn't hire him for that," explains Spencer Coatings managing director Phil Buck. "He has 20 years international experience in our industry and has been working here for four years as a senior technical manager. But we've just bought a majority 75% stake in our joint venture, so he will now be going out to China as our operations manager."

Spencer Coatings' Chinese manager joined the business from the JV a few years ago and has since completed an MBA at Aberdeen University funded by the company. He is now returning to China as the JV's commercial manager.

"It means we've now got an MBA-qualified, English-speaking, Mandarin-speaking, Cantonese-speaking manager based in China with very strong marketing skills," Buck said.

The Polish and Spanish recruits are based at the Spencer Coatings factory in roles such as production, quality control and filling. Buck believes they have helped boost productivity by 25 to 30%.

He said: "To be crude, we couldn't get local Scottish people to do the jobs in the factory that we wanted, so they filled a labour gap but also brought much higher productivity into the company. They're forever knocking on their boss's door saying I've finished that job, what can I do next?"

Contact

Spencer Coatings
Froghall Terrace
Aberdeen
AB24 3JN

Tel: 01224 788400
Fax: 01224 648116
Web: www.spencercoatings.co.uk