How Andy Murphy overcame dyslexia to acquire Melrose Interiors in Bradford

You’ve probably heard the narrative many times before of how the boss of such and such manufacturing company started on the factory floor and worked their way up.

While that’s how you would describe Andy Murphy’s journey at Bradford-based Melrose Interiors, his journey to the top was unusual in many ways.

In the mid-80s, Mr Murphy was struggling at school. No one could put their finger on the reason why he was struggling.

So the previous owner of Melrose Bill Edgley, who was a family friend, gave him a job at the flooring supplier.

Mr Murphy said: “My original passion was farming. I still take a keen interest, I’ve got a little smallholding on Bingley Moor.

“It gives me great relaxation time from the hustle and bustle of running a business and doing a lot of overseas trips.

“Unfortunately, I failed all of my O-Levels at the time and didn’t get one exam. Therefore reality kicked in. I felt I’d let my parents down so I had to rethink.”

It was only much later that Mr Murphy was diagnosed as being dyslexic and the true severity of the condition was only known when he was about 18-years-old.

As a result he took the job at Melrose but decided to retake his GCSEs. It’s evident from Mr Murphy’s voice his desire to prove his academic ability.

In addition to his passion for farming, Mr Murphy was also a keen rugby player. He decided to take a sabbatical from Melrose and leave to go play rugby union down in Australia and New Zealand in 1990.

Mr Murphy says that “because I didn’t go to university I still had a burning desire to travel”.

He would play to a very good standard. Being involved in sport and also moving to the other side of the world helped Mr Murphy develop as a person.

Mr Murphy said: “It gave me a huge amount of confidence. It stretched me and developed me in so many different areas other than just playing.”

A year later he returned to Melrose but this time in a production and sales role.

“At that time we were employing about 120 people,” Mr Murphy says. “We were producing a lot of houseware, bathroom textiles and supplying those to traditional mail order companies.

“We were producing about 20,000 units a week. It was quite a sizable in-house production department.”

However, Mr Murphy wanted to move into sales and marketing and there were no opportunities at Melrose. Therefore he joined Bingley-based Primeur as sales manager in 1995.

“I spent 15 years working with the team there,” Mr Murphy said. “We built that business from £3.5m to over £30m. That was supplying housewares to all the major retailers in the UK.”

His 15 years there were “thoroughly enjoyable”. Mr Murphy even started a management buyout at the firm but in the end it didn’t progress.

“The management buyout aspect really highlighted that I needed to understand the financial element of running a business in much greater detail,” Mr Murphy says.

In 2010, he was approached by the former owner of Melrose to rejoin the Bradford-based business.

Mr Murphy said: “He asked me to come back into the business as managing director. I needed a fresh challenge. There was also equity on offer.

“I really had a burning desire to actually own a part of the business. My personal ambition was to ultimately do a management buyout, which I actually did in 2016.”

His previous unsuccessful attempt at a management buyout was helpful when it came to acquiring Melrose.

“I was much more knowledgeable in terms of the key drivers such as the ability to raise the finance to buy the business and the timescales involved,” Mr Murphy said.

Over the past three years Mr Murphy has rung the changes at Melrose and put his own stamp on the business.

He started off consolidating two of its sites by investing in a new 110,000 sq ft factory and office in Wibsey.

Melrose also has three clear strands to its business. In addition to importing and supplying rugs to retailers it provides logistics support and has a division called Relay that takes in old carpets and rugs to recycle.

“The driver for me is not short-term gain,” Mr Murphy said. “This was actually about getting the business in a healthy state with good foundations and a lot of flexibility.”

Today, Melrose has round 50 staff. A big difference from the 120 it had many years ago but a reflection of automation and technological progress.

However, Mr Murphy is looking to grow that number, especially on the Relay front as customers become more aware about the environment.

The business recently took on two apprentices as a result of its involvement with Bradford Manufacturing Weeks.

Mr Murphy looks back on his own start at the business, working a Saturday job on the factory floor. “That’s why I’m passionate about giving students an opportunity,” he says. “I was in that position when I left school. I needed to be given a chance.”

Looking back on his own struggles with dyslexia in school, Mr Murphy has some advice for those that may be in a similar position.

“One thing that I didn’t do, and I regret now, is I tried to mask it instead of being honest and saying I’ve got a problem,” he says. “That was probably detrimental in those early years.”

Since being diagnosed with dyslexia, Mr Murphy has developed a “toolkit” to help him cope.

“I think a real openness to it is needed,” he says, “but I also think dyslexia gives you certain qualities around drive, determination and sometimes attention to detail.”

The managing director of Melrose doesn’t have any plans to step down. However, Mr Murphy says that “it would be fantastic if we could build a senior management team to ultimately do a management buyout”.

Mr Murphy can see himself returning to his first love of farming in later life.

“I have a burning passion to get back into farming in later life,” says Mr Murphy. “It’s something that is high on my to do list.”

Curriculum Vitae

Title: Managing director

Date of birth: July 1, 1969

Lives: High Eldwick, near Bingley

Favourite holiday destination: Portugal

Last book read: The Jersey, by Peter Bills, The All Blacks; (The secrets behind the world’s most successful team)

Favourite film: The original Italian Job

Favourite song: Yellow by Coldplay

Car driven: Land-Rover

Most proud of: My two children

Education: Salt Grammar School, Baildon