Member Article

Nifco boss confirmed as keynote speaker for County Durham Oktoberfest

The boss behind one of Teesside’s biggest recent success stories has been confirmed as the keynote speaker for a major North-East exhibition later this year.

Mike Matthews, Managing Director of Nifco, based at Eaglescliffe near Stockton, will speak at this year’s County Durham Oktoberfest event, which attracted 1,500 visitors last year.

Mr Matthews, who was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to business in the North-East earlier this month, started out as as an apprentice with Nifco after leaving school.

He has since worked his way up through the business, playing an important role in Nifco’s transformation from one which, just 10 years ago, was operating at a loss to the success story it is today.

Now at the helm of the business, Mr Matthews will talk about the challenges he has faced in turning the business around and some of the highs and lows he’s experienced in his 30 years, which culminated in his promotion to European Operations Officer three years ago.

Mike said: “I am delighted to be invited to be keynote speaker at this year’s Durham Oktoberfest.

“The event is all about promoting the region’s strengths within the fields of engineering and manufacturing and part of that process is to give our firms the chance to hear from people like me, who have experienced first hand the highs and lows of running a business.

“Nothing in life comes easy; I know that better than anyone. Just 10 years ago Nifco was operating at a loss and struggling to retain clients. Today it’s a completely different story.

“We’re an award-winning business supplying some of the world’s leading automotive specialists including Nissan, Honda, Toyota and Ford. It’s a remarkable turnaround and one that, without belief, wouldn’t have been possible.”

Nifco, which manufactures plastic fasteners and interior, exterior, fluid carrying and engine plastic component parts for the automotive industries, moved to £8.5million premises in 2012, and opened a second facility in April 2014 on land adjacent to its main headquarters.

Darren Race, project leader for Durham Oktoberfest and chairman of South Durham Engineering and Manufacturing Forum, said: “We are delighted to be able to announce Mike Matthews as our keynote speaker.

“To secure someone of Mike’s calibre is a real feather in our cap and one which demonstrates the importance of Durham Oktoberfest on a regional scale. Other guest speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.”

Nifco has also been confirmed as one of this year’s Meet the Buyer participants, joining the likes of Heerema, AKS Precision Ball, Northumbrian Water and Parker Hannifin.

Meet the Buyer gives new and growing SMEs the ideal platform to put themselves on the radars of those bigger companies they want to supply to, and to potentially secure work with them.

This year’s Durham Oktoberfest, which is being delivered by the North, East and South Durham Engineering Forums in partnership with NEPIC, the Advanced Manufacturing Forum, NOF Energy, Business Durham and the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS), takes place on Thursday, October 23, at the Xcel Centre on Aycliffe Business Park, Newton Aycliffe.

Business Durham has been confirmed as one of the gold sponsors of the event and other packages are still available.

To find out more about Durham Oktoberfest and how you can get involved, either as a Meet the Buyer participant, exhibitor or sponsor, visit www.durhamoktoberfest.org.uk, email info@durhamoktoberfest.org.uk or call 0191 3037772.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Martin Walker .