MarchantCain Design LTD 18th Birthday
11 Jun 2024
It is 18 YEARS since MarchantCain was founded. I can well remember the day that Rob came home and told me he had handed in his notice at Bentley. It was a bit of a shock! He set up MarchantCain in 2006 and intended to move the company back to our roots in Coventry when, in 2008, we were hit with the banking crash. We were stuck, but carried on regardless, building the business as best we could.
Many people have asked how we manage to live and work together but I think we have morphed over the years into a symbiotic organism; we rarely argue but we do have differences of opinion.
Eventually, we moved to an office on Coventry University Technology Park, and continued to build the company, taking on young graduates and our first apprentice.
We have lived and worked through some of the best and worst times. Achieving our first contract with Porsche, moving premises for the second time to a purpose built unit and Andy Street visiting were some of the highlights. Covid, Rob’s heart attack in May 2022 and the entire automotive world seemingly on a go-slow are some of the worst moments we have endured – and are enduring. However, things are looking up. Rob is back to full physical health although both of us are knackered – what’s new for SME owner/directors? We have a wonderful team of very hard working employees who take care of us and each other. Our network of business support comes up trumps time after time when we reach out; and we are still going despite all the challenges and setbacks.
How’s that for a story of British manufacturing resilience? Here’s to the next 18 years, when the next generation will have taken over and made Rob and me very proud. That’s when we finally get around to writing Rob’s autobiography – him dictating, me typing. It’ll be a riveting read, like the entire MarchantCain chronicle.
Written by Pamela Cain.