8 | FEBRUARY 2019
News
Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk
“IF IT’S NOT GOOD
ENOUGH TO GO IN MY
HOUSE, IT DOESN’T
LEAVE THE FACTORY”
This month, Stedek’s Alex Page describes his rise from seventeen-
year-old apprentice to Managing Director of a fast-growing fabricator.
Alex, your dad
Steve was one of
Stedek’s founders.
I guess that means
you must have
started working
for the business
very young?
Our Sales Director Rich-
ard always says I was born
on the bench – but that’s a
bit of an exaggeration!
I started working for
Stedek when I left school at
17. Back then it was just a
job, and my head was else-
where – I was obsessed with
becoming a Formula One
mechanic at the time. But
before long, I began to take
it much more seriously.
In my first five years at
Stedek, I did every job in
the factory you could pos-
sibly think of. I didn’t get
any special treatment just
because I was the MD’s son.
‘
uncompromising
commitment
to quality
’
I had to start at the bottom
and work my way up, and
I’m really grateful for that.
By the end, it meant
that I’d become an experi-
enced fabricator, and got to
know the business inside
out in the process. Most
importantly of all, it meant
I internalised the Stedek
ethos – an uncompromising
commitment to quality and
customer service, something
my dad started, and that we
still honour today.
In 2018, it’s exactly the
same as the year Stedek was
founded – if a product isn’t
good enough to go in my
house, it doesn’t leave the
factory.
It sounds like you
got an excellent
grounding in the
business during
those first few years
at Stedek. So when
did you stop seeing
it as a 9-to-5 job,
and start seeing
it as something
you might take
over one day?
When I was 22, dad took
the decision to bring me
out of the factory and into
the office. For the first few
years, it followed much the
same pattern as my early
days in the factory – I start-
ed at the bottom, worked
my way up, learned about
how the business worked
and so on.
But the difference be-
tween the factory and the
office is that in the office
you look at the business
much more strategically.
That’s what I found the
most satisfying – and it was
during that period that I
started to think that, one
day, I’d like to run Stedek
myself.
It was always dad’s plan
to retire eventually – and
once Richard had joined as
Sales Director, we had that
conversation. We started
making preparations for dad
to step back, and for myself
and Richard to take on
more responsibility, to make
the transition as smooth as
possible.
What do you think
are Stedek’s key
strengths as a
business?
First and foremost, I think
it’s obsessive attention to
detail. We never take short-
cuts when our customers’
reputations are on the line.
Whatever we do, positive
or negative, will reflect on
them.
Rigorous QC checks take
place at every stage of pro-
duction to ensure the high-
est standards, and everyone
who works here has the
same message drilled into
them from the start – like I
said earlier, if it’s not good
enough to go in your own
home, it’s not leaving the
factory.
To maintain that excel-
lence, we’re constantly
investing in new equipment,
too. in the last couple of
years, we’ve spent over
£300k acquiring a Graf cut-
ting centre, Urban CNC ma-
chine, 12 Jade end-millers,
and a Graf welder. It’s very
much a case of investing for
perfection.
I also think we benefit
hugely from being a family
business. It means we’ve
got access to decades of
knowledge and expertise,
but also the fresh ideas and
technological know-how
that, hopefully, the younger
generation are now bringing
to the table!
www.stedek.co.uk
FREE to pick up at over 650 trade
counters across the UK
ADF PLASTICS LTD
Catch up with previous issues at proinstaller.co.uk