About Us

Clive Anderson

Managing Director

What I am responsible for: I am responsible for guiding my dedicated team to delivering our clients the best possible service we can give. For almost 100 years Purdie have supplied dished ends to the UK market, and I am passionate that the company continues to uphold the values of fairness, integrity, honesty and holding our clients in the highest regard that my predecessor founded the company on.

My time at Purdie: I joined the company in 2001. Prior to this I had worked within the tank and pressure vessel industry for 19 years after leaving school.

What I enjoy doing away from work: I don’t get that much time away from work but when I do it’s all about my family and friends.

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Andy Baird

Works manager

What I am responsible for: I am responsible for planning production on the shop floor and delivering our products to customers to the high standard they expect, and in good time. There is a lot of pressure on lead times at present, as customers are always looking for products to be completed quicker, so we have worked hard to make our processes as efficient as possible. That is done through a mixture of investment in the best equipment, which I am heavily involved in, to training our staff to be highly-skilled, and improving our own internal processes. We have done all of that in recent years.

My time at Purdie: I have been on the shop floor at Purdie since 1991, and that makes me the longest-serving member of staff in the factory itself. I started as a metal spinner before moving on to becoming a supervisor and then a production manager. It is important to have done these roles as works manager now, as I have seen both sides. The people who train our staff now were trained by me, so it has been good to have such an influence on the success of the company.

What I enjoy doing away from work: I do a lot of training and running in marathons and I try and run in a competition every couple of weeks, from 10K events to full marathons. I am also a keen cyclist and a member of the Purdie ‘cycle to work’ team. It’s 14 miles each way though from my home, so I only do that a couple of times a week.

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Mark Barmby

Financial controller / Company secretary

What I am responsible for: I look after all day-to-day financial matters at Purdie, from looking after the payroll and credit control to liaising with the bank and the auditors when it comes to filing our annual reports. I am also ‘project champion’ for our new software system.

My time at Purdie: I joined in February 2007 from an artificial flowers importer. I worked there for a number of years and needed a fresh new challenge, which Purdie certainly has given me. The company has changed a great deal since I first joined and has progressed really well into the great business it is today.

What I enjoy doing away from work: Married with two daughters, I enjoying spending any free time with my family. I enjoy the outdoors, and particularly like cycling where I am part of the Purdie ‘cycle to work’ group. I have ridden the coast to coast in a day from Seascale to Whitby (240km), and regulary completed parts of the 2014 Yorkshire Tour De France course. Finally, I enjoy eating out, where I have a renowned appetite for puddings, hence the cycling!

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Gary Canning

Sales Engineer

What I am responsible for: I am responsible for maintaining relations between existing and new customers. Also in my role I look to secure new orders, and this is done with my time spent in the office with the sales team. Having identified potential new leads I make appointments to visit them. Mostly I am away from the factory and spend time at our customers‘ premises, where we discuss their dished end enquiries. The key to my role is understanding their needs and delivering our product in the agreed time. For any quality or technical issues I am also on hand to offer consultation to our customers.

My time at Purdie: I joined the company in 2012 having spent most of my years in various engineering and manufacturing sectors. Having worked in many places here in the United Kingdom and abroad I would like to think I have a wide experience in sales and industry. My experience is key to the role I have here at Purdie Dished Ends.

What I enjoy doing away from work: I am a keen sportsman and I enjoy socialising.

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Edward Down

Engineering director

What I am responsible for: I have overall responsibility for the shop floor, which briefly comprises of the purchasing and maintenance of machinery, maintaining our quality system and managing the 20 plus shop floor staff. I also look after the engineering side which includes AutoCAD drawings, development of shop floor processes and customer database. Project management of major projects and maintenance of house accounts, with an emphasis on customer focus, just about complete a day’s work!

My time at Purdie: I’ve seen many changes at Purdie and none more so than since 2014 onwards, as we have invested in both new machinery and in adopting new working methods to improve our efficiency and work towards being a lean manufacturer. The entire shop floor has bought into what we are looking to do and that has been very pleasing.

What I enjoy doing away from work: I have two young daughters who keep me busy in my spare time with activities such as dancing, swimming and Brownies. I am also in the process of completely renovating my house, which I’d say will take me the next 10 years to complete given the majority of my time is committed to family life with my wife and daughters.

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Layann Laban

Sales Esimator

What I am responsible for: My role covers all areas of administration, including paperwork such as booking in jobs and ordering materials needed. As park of the sales team I am responsible for pricing customer enquiries and handling any questions relating to customer orders.

My time at Purdie: I joined in 2011 having previously worked at a local learning zone teaching English, Maths and IT. Prior to this I studied Psychology and criminology at Leeds Metropolitan University.

What I enjoy doing away from work: Outside of work you are most likely to find me curled up with a good book. I particularly enjoy the ones with a big twist at the end. I like to spend my weekends having a drink and dance with close family and friends.

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Amanda Rands

Quality Engineer

What I am responsible for: My main priority is the day-to-day final inspection of finished dished ends, ensuring the product meets customer requirements and expectations. I ensure both internal non-conformities and customer complaints are dealt within a timely manner, implementing corrective and preventative actions. I record inspection results statistically, reporting my findings and identify trends and areas of concern with a view to establishing best working practices and I am continually looking for areas to implement continuous improvement activities. I am also responsible in part for maintaining and updating the company Quality Systems Manual and have an active role in continuous improvement motives.

My time at Purdie: I joined the company in December 2010 in the newly created role of Quality Inspector. Over the years I have been involved in continuous improvement excursuses on the shop floor focusing on lean manufacturing principle the results of which have greatly improved the manufacturing efficiencies and enhanced the company in renewal.

What I enjoy doing away from work: Listening to music, walking and birdwatching.

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Peter Rooney

Operations manager

What I am responsible for: I am focused on ensuring the continuous improvement of operations within the business. This has seen us place a big focus on lean manufacturing principles, which is essentially identifying ways of becoming more efficient and reducing waste of all kinds including time resource.

This is obviously key to us improving our systems and processes, ultimately bringing savings for us, and quicker lead times and improved services to customers. Another key part of my role is managing the maintenance of our machinery, and planning it so that there is as little disruption as possible to our production lines, which run continuously.

Our 5s programme has played an important role in ensuring that this busy factory is as tidy and well organised as it can be, with spare part and tools to hand.

It has been my responsibility and privilege to look after our apprentice programme. We are keen to help young people learn this skills needed to ensure the growth of the business, and give us a strutted succession plan. We currently have two newly qualified engineers and one apprentice in his third year.

My time at Purdie: I have been been here just short of 4 years now, during which time we have all been on the forever journey of continuous improvements looking at any opportunity however small and seemingly insignificant performance and stay at the top of our game and at the top of the industry supply chain.

Four years on, we can undoubtedly say that it has made a significant difference and we can see clear improvements in how we operate as a business. As with any continuous improvement programme, there is no end to it and all ideas are welcomed.

What I enjoy doing away from work: I am keen to spend quality time with my family, and have two granddaughters in the UK whom we love to spend time with, and two young grandsons in New Zealand to have face time with at the weekends. I’m a big fan of motorsport and like to spend time with friends. Other 'geekish' interests include computers, such as CAD and Excel programming. Many of my interests are linked to my work... it is never far from my mind!

Lisa Way

Sales office manager

What I am responsible for: My role centres around handling the accounts of our customers and dealing with everything relating to sales, such as contracts, pricing and stock levels. I also offer support to the admin team and accounts department. I collate the weekly and monthly sales figures and produce them for our regular production meetings to ensure we know how we are performing against targets. A key role is ensuring our sales figures are fed through to our factory floor to ensure they are aware of the demand and targets.

My time at Purdie: I am currently in my 20th year in the Purdie office! I am the longest-serving member of the office team having started in 1999. I started as an Office Junior, then progressed into admin, accounts and onto Sales before my current position. I don't know where the 20 years have gone, I like to claim I'm still in my 20's when asked!

What I enjoy doing away from work: I am a full-time mum of 3 children, 1 daughter at high school, another daughter at primary school and a toddler in childcare and grandparents helping as well. Needless to say my house is not a quiet one! Always lots of family activities on the go from swimming, gymnastics to having school friends to sleep over. When I do find myself it's often with a few glasses or prosecco or ciders with lots of white chocolate! I enjoy going out with friends and family for drinks and meals and taking the children on holidays.

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