MARCH 1999 BROADSHEET - Competing for Business Overseas
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR MEMBER TONY HOOLEY WHO HAS JUST WON THE SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR AWARD
Tony has invented a digital loudspeaker which does not require an amplifier. DTI have put £100K into the venture and a prototype will be on display in the Millennium Dome. More details in the Cambridge Evening News Business Section for 23rd March.
We thought our visit to Marshalls on 23rd February would be popular and are delighted that this came true. At the same time we are sorry that so many had to be turned away. It was even better than last time, about three years ago, so we hope another tour for all those that were disappointed can be arranged sooner than that.
Our guide was David Pittham, recently retired Fleet Sales Manager and he had been employed, man and boy, by Marshalls for 50 years. His enthusiasm was infectious, giving Marshalls a magnificent press. The family cohesion and spirit were well borne out by the huge numbers of long serving workers. He gave us a fascinating history slide show going back to the first car in 1909, purchased to convey drunken students back to their colleges from the Pitt Club where David Marshall served, to the first Spitfire on the new airfield in 1938, through the Battle of Britain pilot training by Sir Arthur Marshall to the order for 12 Concord nose cones in 1965 and then the franchises for Lockheed Hercules, Tristars, Gulfstreams and now Boeing 747s.
We started with the busses and the special vehicle bodywork construction, a surprise to most people in Cambridge that such a large operation is taking place on what seems a very constricted site. Crossing the Newmarket Road we entered the hangar for small aicraft maintenance and then on to the big stuff. This was mind boggling! Five or six massive jumbos in each hangar. One of the 747s was bolted to the outside of one hangar with one wing inside and connecting flexible coverered gangways to the side hatches so that it could be worked on from inside.
The ultimate prize, which showed what a well ordered group we were, was the offer by the night superintendent to go aboard one of the 747s - the first time any visiting party had been allowed to enter an aircraft under construction. The standard 747s had been flown in from Seattle and Marshalls had the job of converting them into flying mobiles. All the business class seats were being modified to take laptops which connected to printers and modems for continuous communication in flight. Our technician guide had the more jaundiced view that it would become a flagrant casino, nothing but computer games! The planes were completely gutted to achieve this, all the control wires, ventilation systems and body insulation fully revealed. The turn round time was just 16 days.
We are grateful to our committee member Jim Cole for organising this fascinating visit.
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