News

Jim Doherty

Job title: Managing Director of The Doherty Group (a family-owned precision turned parts manufacturer).
Age: 31

LAST YEAR Jim Doherty was hoping to expand the group, including a possible move into new markets. But instead, the uncompetitive exchange rate and high cost of manufacturing in the UK forced the company to move its production to Hungary.

From 120 people employed at WH Doherty two years ago there are now about five. All production cells have been shipped out to the company's Hungarian plant, Doherty Hungary Kft, where they are working three shifts, five days a week and generating enough cash to re-invest and expand the business at a rate the firm has never known in the UK, Doherty says.

WH Doherty is now being run by my general manager as a batch production and technical development business to support N&J Engineering and the volume business in Hungary. We also want to retain this foothold in the UK so that if the opportunity, market or politicians allow it we can start volume manufacturing again.

Jim Doherty now runs N&J Engineering, which buys precision components from all over the world, including the UK, and then stocks and distributes them. He would like to see a much greater proportion of N&J's supplier base in the UK, but its customers want the prices and quality levels available from overseas, he says.

'The Doherty Group has had to change very quickly to survive. To a large extent that has meant turning our backs on our home patch.'