» EARLIER THIS YEAR , Edgetech ’ s long-serving Jason Blundred took over responsibility for manufacturing at the UK facility . Here , he explains his history with the company , what the new job entails , and how Edgetech has fared during one of the most challenging and unpredictable years in recent memory .

Jason , you ’ re the latest addition to Edgetech ’ s senior management team , but you ’ ve been with the company for 14 years . Can you tell us how you came to join Edgetech ?

I started out at 15 as an apprentice at Massey Ferguson , the agricultural machinery manufacturer , where I worked for 17 years until a plant closure in 2002 .

That gave me a grounding in maintenance and engineering , which was the focus of my next job , at cleaning product supplier Chemtech .

I was perfectly happy there , and had no intention of leaving , but one day I got a call from my predecessor at Edgetech , who ’ d been tasked with setting up the British manufacturing arm of the business .

At the time , I knew very little about windows and doors , let alone what a warm-edge spacer bar was , but apparently someone had put my name forward – and to this day , I still don ’ t know who that was !

I went for a series of interviews , was offered the job , and two weeks later I was in America for a month ’ s training at Edgetech HQ in Ohio .

While I wasn ’ t in the States long , I met a lot of fantastic

people , and I ’ m still friends with several today . Whenever my wife and I go on holiday to America , we always stop off in Ohio to catch up .

What did that first role at Edgetech entail , and how did you end up in your new position ?

Initially , we were tasked with getting Edgetech ’ s first manufacturing facility outside of North America up and running . I got back from America in March , and our target was to get the initial line operational by the end of April , which we managed .

It ’ s funny to look back now – I remember celebrating us making 100,000 feet of spacer across three shifts . We can now do that in one !

From there , I became the only engineer on site , which meant that all breakdowns were my job to deal with . That was obviously a huge responsibility , so before long we brought in a team , which I then oversaw for the next four years .

With rising demand for warm edge spacers , we quickly outgrew capacity in Coventry , and we decided to expand our European capabilities by introducing manufacturing at our German location too .

Helping to set up that facility is one of the achievements I ’ ve been most proud of in my career so far , and our German colleagues are celebrating 10 years of manufacturing this year .

Having the two facilities in Europe gives us an edge in the market , as we ’ re able to work together to maximise productivity and deliver the best service and quality for all our customers .

During the intervening time , John Stark had joined the business as Works Manager – another huge task . Eventually , he decided he needed a deputy to help him out . I put my name forward , and got the job .

Then at the beginning of this year , John told us that he was leaving . The good news is he ’ s not going far – he ’ s gone to work at Liniar , another Quanex company . But since then , I ’ ve been gearing up to take on his role , which I did officially on May 1st .

I ’ ll miss John a lot . He ’ s the best manager I ’ ve ever had , and I ’ m hugely grateful for everything he taught me . We ’ ll keep in touch .

‘ We ’ re fortunate to have an incredible group of people working at Edgetech ’

What does a typical day look like in your job ? Or is every day different ?

It certainly varies . Any plans you make at the beginning of the day always have to adapt to whatever crops up .

We always start by reviewing any issues that occurred over the last 24 hours – safety ’ s always the top priority , and the thing we talk about first . We keep a very close eye on product quality , and particularly at the moment , spend a lot of time negotiating issues around supply .

From there , I just do whatever ’ s needed to support the team . We ’ re fortunate to have an incredible group of people working at Edgetech – many of them have over ten years ’ service here , and it ’ s very common for them to have worked their way up through the ranks .

We worked out the other day that over the last 10 years , 30 staff members have been promoted internally , and I think it ’ s that culture of identifying talent and supporting people to grow that ’ s made Edgetech the force it is today .

Edgetech has always put a major emphasis on staff safety . How have you coped over the last year against the backdrop of the pandemic ?

You ’ re definitely right that Edgetech has always had a very good safety culture – and since we were acquired by Quanex ten years ago , that ’ s only increased .

When it comes to ensuring staff safety , money doesn ’ t come into it