MD looks to engineer changes to head off future skills crisis

Joanna Robinson has made it to the top at Mansfield Pollard. Now she is keen to see more women forge a career in industry. Ismail Mulla reports.
Joanna Robinson of Mansfield Pollard recieves the Employer of the Year award from Archbishop Dr John Sentamu and Justin Webb at the Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business awards at The Queens Hotel  in Leeds. Picture Tony JohnsonJoanna Robinson of Mansfield Pollard recieves the Employer of the Year award from Archbishop Dr John Sentamu and Justin Webb at the Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business awards at The Queens Hotel  in Leeds. Picture Tony Johnson
Joanna Robinson of Mansfield Pollard recieves the Employer of the Year award from Archbishop Dr John Sentamu and Justin Webb at the Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business awards at The Queens Hotel in Leeds. Picture Tony Johnson

On the face of it, the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai and an industrial site in Bradford are worlds apart.

But there is something that bounds these two contrasting places, for some of the kitchen ventilation systems in the world’s tallest building are manufactured by Mansfield Pollard.

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While by all accounts the Bradford-based air management business is a traditional engineering firm, there’s something different about Mansfield Pollard. The company is undergoing transformational changes under the leadership of a woman.

Managing director Joanna Robinson joined the firm in 2000 as a financial controller. Not long after that she would start sitting on the board of the then family-run business.

“They included me into the board meetings quite early on,” say Ms Robinson.

She was made company secretary in 2002 and then progressed to financial director in 2007. Yet bigger things were on the horizon for this qualified accountant.

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Following a management buyout, Ms Robinson would go on to become the group’s first non-family MD in 2013.

But she faced a number of challenges upon taking over the reins in 2013, one of them being succession. “I had succession issues. We’re a highly technical business,” she said.

“A lot of the senior people within the business were the directors and they were getting to the age where they were wanting to retire or slow down.

“From a technical perspective, I had to focus on getting the right people to enable me to not only sustain the business but grow it as well.”

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The Pollard family still maintains involvement in the company through chairman Alan Pollard. Ms Robinson says he was a key driving factor in her taking on the role of MD.

“I’ve been here now 16 years and I’ve worked quite closely with Alan. Through my whole time here he’s been the closest person to me – we get on well,” she added.

“We tend to think quite in sync with one another on most matters.”

In addition to the Burj Khalifa, Mansfield Pollard has also done installations at Somerset House in London and Dubai Mall. Data centre cooling is a growing sector for the firm.

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The business celebrates its 150th birthday this year and has ambitious plans to grow. The plans could see the firm move out of its current premises, which once used to be a Porsche garage and showroom.

Ms Robinson said: “We just recently rearranged our organisational structure to try and facilitate further growth.

“We won’t be able to stay within this building at some point if our growth plans happen. This building will constrict our growth. It will be a positive thing to move.”

An immediate move though is not on the agenda and when Mansfield Pollard decides to up sticks it will remain in Bradford, where it has been based for all of its 150 years.

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“We won’t move out of Bradford because that’s where all our people are from,” says the managing director.

Alongside running a company with a turnover of around £15m and head count of 150, Ms Robinson also spends a great deal of her time championing women in engineering.

She is the only female member of the executive committee of the Building & Engineering Services Association (B&ES) Ductwork Group. Ms Robinson is helping the organisation push for greater gender diversity in the industry.

The MD of Mansfield Pollard believes that the industry needs to act now and encourage more women to pursue careers in engineering to help avert a future skills crisis.

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“We struggle to find the right people now, so what it’s going to be like in two or three years time?” she said.

“It’s really going to impact our industry because we’ll be fighting for the same people from the same pool. We have to try and encourage new blood into the industry.”

But trying to get more women into engineering “is like pushing custard uphill” says Ms Robinson.

“We have a number of roles and we rarely get women applying. We would welcome more women here because diversity within a business brings new ideas and different thought processes,” she added.

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“But if you don’t get the applicants you don’t have that pool to choose from.”

Raising awareness is key to achieving this, says Ms Robinson.

“It’s got to start from schools. Teachers, parents and children are unaware of the opportunities within an engineering business such as mine.”

Ms Robinson is taking an active approach by working with Skipton Girls’ High School. Two students are being mentored by engineers for Mansfield Pollard, while the company has also taken on its first ever female apprentice.

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It’s all well getting talent through the door but it’s another thing creating a positive workplace atmosphere. This is something that the Bradford-based SME has also managed to get right, a fact that saw Mansfield Pollard named Employer of the Year at last 
year’s Excellence in Business Awards.

“I don’t like the thought of my staff getting up on a Monday morning and not wanting to come into work,” says Ms Robinson.

“I want everybody to feel positive about Mansfield Pollard.”

Although Ms Robinson seems to be only just getting started, if she ever does leave her role she wants to leave behind a business that is financially stable, has a happy, engaged workforce and a reputation for being complex problem solvers in their industry.

Joanna Robinson factfile:

Title: Managing director, Mansfield Pollard

Date of birth: 10/07/1973

Lives: Leeds

Favourite holiday destination: Dominican Republic

Last book read: Chimp Paradox by Prof Steve Peters

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Favourite film: Stir Crazy starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor

Favourite song: Amy Winehouse’s Tears Dry on Their Own

Car driven: Audi A7

Most proud of: My children. From a work point of view winning the Employer of the Year Award at The Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business Awards

Education: Park Lane College, Intake High School, both in Leeds.

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