Member Article

Ford celebrate further award success

Ford is celebrating yet again, with another two awards for the company and a prestigious accolade for the achievements of its Chair.

South Tyneside based Ford, incorporating Ford Aerospace Limited and Ford Component Manufacturing Limited, is no stranger to awards having already picked up trophies this year for its internal culture as well as achievements in exporting to new markets.

Now Chair, Geoff Ford MBE, has been recognised with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the North East Business Executive of the Year Awards. The honour is bestowed on individuals who have demonstrated a huge commitment to business in the North East and Geoff is no exception. His dedication to putting South Tyneside and the wider region on the map really struck a chord with the judges who were blown away by the wide and varied roles the man now widely referred to as ‘Mr South Tyneside’ has undertaken during his career. With longstanding voluntary roles in business, education, health and manufacturing Geoff is still actively involved in the wider business community. He is Chair of South Tyneside Manufacturing Forum, Chair of education business partnership Made in South Tyneside (MIST) and is also heavily involved in the Workplace Health Alliance.

He said; “I was shocked but nevertheless absolutely delighted to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. To be celebrated at the Awards dinner, in a room full of my peers, with my family and friends around me was incredible. As I said on the night, there is plenty of life in the old dog yet and still a lot to achieve, I’ve no intentions of hanging up my hat quite yet.”

It’s certainly been a busy couple of months for Mr Ford and Ford’s Managing Director, Mark Podmore. Ford Aerospace picked up the training award for Medium Sized Company of the year at the annual TDR Training Awards whilst both companies were jointly awarded Runners Up in the hotly contended Skills Training category of EEF’s Future Manufacturing Awards.

“This year has been fantastic for Ford in a number of ways. We’ve restructured internally, launched new products, broken into new export markets and signed multi-million pound deals resulting in further investment in people and new technology. So, to have that recognised with the five awards we have won to date is an achievement not just for the Board, but for every member of the Ford team” said Mark Podmore, MD.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jonny Marshall .