The Tech-Board Story (Stranger then fiction)

The true story of the most dramatic "Greenfield Startup" failure in British manufacturing history

Into Operation

After the opening we had a very important quality test – the mill had to run for 24 hours and produce so much hardboard of a certain (non wavy) quality. On completion of this test the banks would release a whole chunk of money to allow Tech Board to trade until they started making a profit.

So, if the plant passed the quality test, the company would continue. If it failed the quality test, there would be no more money and it would have to close. So, did it pass? Of course it did. In all the time up to the quality test the board was wavy, but in a miraculous 24 hours it all came together – the quantity and quality of the board was perfect.

It was just really really unfortunate that the moment the quality test was complete, the board went back to being wavy and bits of plant started to break down again.

Over first 12-15 months we were down most of the time. I remember Dave Heslop (Where are they now?) going mad all the time!!! The engineers never left the building , especially Mike Thomas!!. Production were always cleaning up one mess after another. Money was being spent like water and Malcolm was under increasing pressure.

Tony the Financial Director remained jolly throughout.

Colin (the bloke that bought the wood.. and ... well that was it ?)   walked his dog and spent time in the forests with his suppliers.

The Quality of the board at this time was not good. We ended up selling it to somewhere in Spain. We all thought that the whole point being the only manufacture based in the UK was to supply the UK? Very strange times.

During this time Malcolm left as MD and was replaced by someone called George Anderson (Where are they now?).

I don’t think this was any shock to Malcy, he had always said that it was unusual for MDs who start these large schemes to last more than 18 months. Still, unless anyone tells us otherwise, we believe it was the biggest amount of money raised by venture capital for a manufacturing site, essentially by an individual. Malcy – top bloke – get in touch.