ConSpare is a forward-thinking, family-run business with over 40 years of experience serving all the major concrete producers. Tom Bullock joined the business back in 2016, following in the footsteps of his father (James Bullock, CEO), uncle (David Bullock, MD) and late grandfather (Jim Bullock, Founder of ConSpare). We took some time to sit down with Tom to discuss his transition after graduating from university with a degree in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, what the past 10 years have been like with ConSpare, and to get his thoughts on how things have changed over the years…
As the new boy, I got asked to make some tea, but not being a tea drinker, I had to say that unfortunately I couldn’t even do that!
I’ve had a fantastic journey so far. I was initially given to conveyor belt extraordinaire David Patterson, and we had a great time setting up the Bulk Materials Handling Division over the next four or five years. My work on the structure of the office and how we transacted business was improving all the time, and by the end of my time in the Bulk team it was already becoming superior to how the rest of the business was trading. I was then poached by James to go and perfect what I had designed and roll it out to the other divisions. I did so and was promoted to the General Manager role of the Spares Division.
(Tom on site in the early days, installing a STARCLEAN® Belt Cleaner)
During my tenure as General Manager of the Spares Division, we have grown substantially, but I have also been involved in some really fantastic projects across the wider business, such as helping design our new Castlewood premises and how it operates. I have also directed investments that the business has made into a wide range of things, including our ERP system, exhibits, stock, racking, cranes, and of course my beloved solar panels. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed doing all of it with the great team that we have here, which includes a few close relatives as well.
It’s difficult to pick a favourite but I think it has to be my thorough re-design of how the business handles its order taking and record keeping. This is a central pillar of our operation and I am proud to say that we are now keeping a much higher quality of record, put together in far less time, with much quicker access, and which automatically yields some really fantastic analysis. This was essentially a continuous improvement exercise that genuinely gives us a lot more output from a lot less input. To pull this off at scale was a real thrill, not to mention we are saving about 3 trees worth of paper per year. Somewhere out there are about 15 trees still standing.
(Tom on-site at Castlewood HQ, helping to oversee building of new premises)
If I could pick a second achievement I would say that it was getting the business to invest in solar. It was a fantastic journey going from a real low point of being told by the developer to that our roof wasn’t suitable for solar panels to finding a local company who could do it, directing a £70,000 investment then seeing 100kW of solar panels get fitted to our roof in the snow around 3.5 years ago. I have then watched in amazement as our total consumption of power has broadly equaled our total production ever since. Our net draw from the grid in that 3.5 year period has been effectively zero. I think it’s an outstanding environmental achievement.
It was a combination of factors, but I think I always knew I wanted to work in the family business. I’ve always been mechanically minded and interested in machines, I liked the fact that the business helps to keep the nation’s construction and food industries moving, plus it was a great opportunity to learn how a business works in incredible detail and to learn from some extremely skilled and knowledgeable people. I also wanted to use what I had learned from my degree in manufacturing engineering to see if I could improve the business, I saw this as a supremely exciting challenge.
I think James has always set the bar high across the business, being a manufacturing engineer by training I set out to try and make that happen.
Almost everything. The building we operate from, our processes and systems, our capabilities and technologies, our product ranges themselves – all of them have been overhauled completely and our turnover has nearly doubled at the same time.
We are a small, organically grown business who are willing to invest for the long term in making things better for both our customers and ourselves. We’ve also got a huge amount of experience, as well as some truly world class suppliers and products.
There is a very little that tops looking at a process, coming up with an idea to improve it, investing in making the change and then seeing it work as predicted and delivering big benefits. I’ve turned huge technical processes that took days each into routines that take just a few seconds. Absolute magic.
(Tom, setting up our new warehouse crane)
I love target rifle shooting, hiking, skiing and have recently bought a lathe and got into hobby machining as well.
I’ve got a real passion for design, I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen but I do know that we will continue investing and improving the business, I’m optimistic about the future.
Join us in congratulating Tom on a decade at ConSpare and we look forward to seeing where he will be in another 10 years.
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