Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 25
“They come as 20-year-old kids and now they’re married
with two kids who are almost leaving school. You forget
just how much you have to support people over the
years.
”
Tony started out as an Apprentice with Darchem
Engineering on Aycliffe Business Park in 1978, but
the firm closed its Aycliffe site as he was ending his
Apprenticeship.
To make ends meet, Tony drove a wagon for a couple of
years and spent six months in Hamsterley Forest as a
lumberjack.
He then purchased a company called Winston
Fabrications with a friend, a business which is still going
now, but later sold his share and moved on to work for
Tomaz in South Church and Cobtech in Shildon before
launching ALM Products in 1994.
“It was the right decision, he says. “I never get up on a
”
morning and don’t want to come to work. Often I may go
home on an evening and not want to come back, but by
the next morning I’m looking forward to it again.
“Over the years we’ve done quite well and had a good
life out of the business. We’ve certainly learned a lot in
the last five years. It’s just been a case of managing cash
flow with very little help from financial institutions.
“We’ve got a much better cash flow now, and by the end
of next year we’ll be out of a lot of debt. And the sooner,
the better.
”
ALM is back in recruitment mode and is now looking to
start taking on Apprentices again, as well as looking for
skilled people.
“I still don’t think engineering is perceived as a good
career move in school, he says.
”
“And yet I think it has got to be one of the be