Alistair Houghton meets JOHN WINDSOR AND FAMILY of Rewinds & J Windsor

THEY joke that they have never made any formal business plans, but that hasn’t stopped the family members who run Rewinds & J Windsor (RJW) from growing a market-leading business.

John Windsor, his brother Michael and his son Lee are directors at the Liverpool industrial repair company, which employs more than 100 people in Merseyside and Manchester.

The business was founded by John and Michael’s father just after World War II.

Today it offers 24-hour repair and support services to companies throughout the North West in sectors from manufacturing to wind energy, and continues to run a successful apprenticeship scheme.

Last month RJW celebrated the installation of a purpose-built spiral welding machine, an investment the directors hope will help it expand its work in areas including the maintenance of wind turbines.

John and Michael have run the company since the 1960s and now a new generation of family members, including Lee, is set to drive the company forward.

Sitting round a table in their company’s small boardroom in Liverpool’s docklands, the three directors talked with pride about their company’s history.

RJW has focused on many different areas in its history, from vacuum cleaners to ship repair. John and Michael insist those changes were never the result of a grand plan but instead resulted from a tightly-knit family firm being able to make quick decisions.

John said: “We never had a formal board meeting because we worked with each other every day, so a lot of decisions were made there and then.

“We were together so much that we could react very quickly to anything that happened.

“Sometimes we used to go out in the middle of the night and collect electrical motors.”

Lee said: “I remember as a child my dad having to answer phone calls. They always used to make sure that either he or Michael stayed at home so they could take those calls.”

In March, 1946, John Isaac Windsor started the company armed with just a box of tools and £7 and 10 shillings.The company was then called Rewinds and specialised in repairing vacuum cleaners.

In the 1950s the growing company began repairing electric motors and diversified into ship repair work.

The company’s unusual compound name sounds as though it must be a recent creation, perhaps resulting from a merger. Instead, it actually dates back to 1958 and the founder’s successful attempts to diversify his business.

Michael said: “His company was called Rewinds. That was smashing for vacuum cleaners and electric motors, but he found it was not so good if he wanted to do mechanical engineering work. So he set up another firm, J Windsor & Sons.”

Chartered engineer Michael joined the business full-time in 1958, initially in a sales role.

His brother John joined in 1963 after working for the “marvellous” Bibby group.

During that decade the company changed focus again, moving into land-based industrial repair work as its customer base changed.

“The change flowed naturally,” said John. “It wasn’t a case of us saying ‘we’re going to do this’. We just found we were working with different companies.”

John and Michael took charge of the business in the 1960s as their father took a back seat.

“He started doing archaeological digs,” said John. “He was always interested in history.”

The company was based in Chaloner Street, south of Wapping, but the building was compulsorily purchased for a road widening scheme.

RJW bought land off Regent Road and built its current home in 1972. The building has since been extended twice as the company has expanded, including the building of a new home for its electronics repair division in 1996.

In 1968, RJW opened its Wallasey works, whose services include “dynamic balancing” to repair and retune pieces of industrial equipment with rotating parts.

In the 1990s RJW began looking for Manchester acquisitions as it moved to expand its customer base. In 1999 it bought CH Rewinds and its sister company George Platt and John’s son Lee moved to Manchester to manage them.

Today most of the company’s work is in industry, but it is increasingly looking at opportunities in the wind energy sector.

“We’ve put an awful lot of research and development into it,” said Michael. “It’s a new industry. There isn’t a rulebook to go by.”

The company was so proud of its new spiral welder, designed by its engineering manager Mark Lavelle, that it invited Welding Institute director Dr Bob John to open it.

The machine means RJW can repair worn or damaged metal shafts from industrial machines or wind turbines by coating them with a new layer of metal. It means companies do not have to buy expensive new shafts and can get their machines back in action more quickly.

“One oddball usage of it,” said John, “is in the food industry where everything should be stainless steel. If you have a steel shaft, you can coat it with a stainless steel outer layer so it complies with health and safety regulations.”

The recession, John says, hasn’t hit RJW’s businesses evenly.

“Some sectors have completely ignored it, while other sectors have been hard hit,” he said.

“The automotive industry has been badly hit. The wind power and utilities sectors haven’t been hit.”

Lee joined RJW in 1991 after studying for a degree in mechanical engineering. He is keen to continue RJW’s research and development into the renewable energy sector, while he is also working to identify other growth areas in industry.

The directors are particularly proud of their apprenticeship scheme, which has been running since the company was founded.

At any one time it will have around nine apprentices on its books. Many former apprentices are now in senior positions at RJW and elsewhere.

“We’ve carried on running it even through the lean years of the 80s and 90s,” said Michael. “Dad always said that if you wanted a workforce, you had to train it.

“We often get people in senior positions in companies ringing us up, and then we find they were apprentices here in the past.”

The company is also proud that many of its workers stay with it for many years.

John said: “We had one of our former apprentices retire last summer at 65.”