Teddington MD James Henderson featured on BBC Radio Cornwall

Teddington MD James Henderson was delighted to be featured on BBC Radio Cornwall’s Business Month last month.

Engineering specialists Teddington, based in St Austell, designs, develops and manufactures intelligent control solutions for military, commercial and domestic applications.

James was interviewed by presenter Martin Shaw for BBC Radio Cornwall’s series of business profile features. James spoke about Teddington’s work with the Ministry of Defence, working in Cornwall, Brexit, and established products such as the KBB.

The interview was aired during the breakfast show on April 20.

James said: “The Ministry of Defence is one of our strong customers. We do design and engineering work for them and, going back many years, we've worked with them on nuclear submarines, surface ships, and everything from basic temperature pressure control systems all the way through to the control system that will be running the propulsion system for the Vanguard class submarines.

“When we recruit, we do actively recruit in the Cornwall area, and adverts, when they’re placed, will not be national but regional in the first instance. The team is now completely Cornish – made up of mechanical and electronic engineers.

“What works is teamwork. It sounds silly, it's a cliché I know, but they work well together and getting the right group of people with the right skillset is actually harder than it sounds."

James (pictured above with KBBs) added: “Brexit is very much on our mind. We've seen fluctuations in the pound for raw materials, importing and exporting. There’s a lot of unpredictability and uncertainty. I'm not going to say it's a good thing or a bad thing; it's merely removed our ability to really forecast effectively.

“Decision making by customers is considerably slower and projects are indeed being delayed by years now. It means that it is difficult for us to manage our resources and allocate times to projects.

“We make a product called the KBB fire valve which is in most people's houses if you're on an oil supply. It’s a fire safety product... and it is more than likely that if you've got oil in your property you will have one of our safety devices fitted.

“We have just appointed brand new agents in the Middle East – in Oman – because the Omani military are interested in our capabilities here. We're able to speak with large and small customers alike on very, very large to very, very small projects, so the future is very positive.”