Meet the MD: Inprotec boss Chris Oldroyd on the circular economy and transforming the UK's metal waste procedures

Engineering specialist Chris Oldroyd is on a mission to transform the way we deal with precious and valuable metal waste in the UK.

There’s currently an estimated 9.5 million tonnes of scrap metal shipped abroad every year.

Chris is leading thinking around what is required to ensure the UK has the right infrastructure in place to recover and refine such waste and deliver major economic and environmental benefits.

Can you tell the readers about yourself first of all - i.e. your background, where you are from etc?

I’m the MD of Inprotec, a family-run engineering business which specialises in the design and supply of pyrometallurgical process plant used to recover lead and precious metals, operating all over the world.

The circular economy is my passion and the inspiration behind everything we do at Inprotec, with our mission being to help businesses to recover and refine precious and valuable metal waste.

While I’ve always been a keen advocate for the environment and sustainability, my route to the position I find myself in today is probably best described as unorthodox.

My dream when I was young boy growing up in Yorkshire was to become a veterinarian, but I didn’t apply myself sufficiently to get the grades I needed, so I went on instead to study a degree in Biochemistry at the University of Newcastle.

Following this, I spent the first two years of my career as an IT recruitment consultant with Aerotek in Coventry. I soon thought that a career in IT would suit me and managed to land a place with Barclays in Cheshire as a computer programmer.

I spent the next 12 years working in IT in a variety of roles and companies, before deciding that I needed a change.

My father had spent a lifetime working as a consultant mechanical engineer and had amassed some valuable designs and solid clients.

He was due to retire and offered to help me take over his work. It seemed like an odd decision to have such a drastic change in career in my early thirties, but I decided, probably out of blind loyalty, to give it a go.

I returned to college and obtained a Higher National Certificate (HNC) in Mechanical Engineering and took over the business in 2010, rebranding it to Inprotec in 2013.

Away from work, I can normally be found spending quality time with my wife Lucy and our kids Emily and James, taking our dog Holly on many of the wonderful picturesque walks around Holmfirth and the Colne Valley.

I love to cycle too, but I live in Holmfirth which is a rural area and seriously hilly. As I approach middle-age, I have noticed that climbing these hills is not getting any easier, so I invested in an eBike - it’s quickly become one of the best investments I’ve ever made.

What does your role entail?

Inprotec Ltd is a small company so I am a ‘hands-on’ MD, which means I have a technical job role within the organisation as well as the general management of the business.

I largely do the sales and marketing of the business, but I also get heavily involved in technical support for existing customers and providing mechanical design solutions to hand on to our Mechanical Design Engineer to develop.

Other aspects of my role include human resources management, financial accounting, legal and compliance and quality management.

When was Inprotec set up, and how has it grown since then?

In 2010, I took over my father’s business, which he had started in 1977, so I am a so-called second-generation entrepreneur.

The company was small and completely revolved around him, but he had some great designs and great customers and my initial focus was very much on developing these designs and increasing the customer base, taking the company into new global markets. Following some initial success, I rebranded the company to Inprotec Ltd in 2013.

We specialise in a relatively niche engineering sector, designing and supplying pyrometallurgical process plant used primarily to recover precious and non-ferrous metals.

For the non-initiated, this means furnaces and the equipment required to support a furnace.

They are special furnaces as they are designed to recover, upgrade and refine metals that are locked up in more complex materials, such as industrial by-products.

Over the last ten years, we have become very much a global business, supplying customers across a range of industries including metal refineries, recycling and waste plants and manufacturers.

While we work with major international businesses, we tend to focus on smaller scale, more specialist projects, drawing on our wealth of experience, intellectual property, and specialist skills to service these to the highest level. Our customers get to know us personally, and we repay their trust with a service that meets their timescale and technical demands exactly, always going the extra mile for our customers.

What is it about your organisation that motivates and excites you the most?

For me, it’s the fact that everything we do is geared towards supporting the circular economy, which I’m very passionate about.

Our whole offering is based on providing companies with the best solutions for reclaiming valuable and precious metals and putting them back into the economy.

With many of these metals becoming increasingly scarce at source, our work is becoming ever more important and it’s this opportunity to make a positive difference that really motivates and drives everything we do.

Looking back on the past year, what has been your biggest achievement?

On a personal level, being awarded fellowship of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3), in recognition of the contribution I’ve made to the metals and processing equipment industry, was a very proud day for me.

What have been your biggest challenges during your time at Inprotec so far, and how have you overcome them?

Running a business is never straightforward and there are challenges every step of the way. I think the biggest challenge for any company is ensuring it’s constantly looking ahead to ensure it’s best placed to meet customer needs.

I’m proud of the fact that Inprotec never stands still, we’re always innovating our product and service offering to ensure it remains industry leading, with customer needs and requirements central to everything we do.

**What does the future hold for your company? Any exciting projects in the pipeline we should know about? **

Even though it is a tough trading period now, I am optimistic that we have a great future ahead of us. I see the company having a physical global presence with representatives in North America, and the Far East.

I also see our services expanding beyond what we can provide today, especially in areas such as toll refining and industrial technical education services.

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