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Powering towards the future: Brother UK’s outlook for 2023
Coming out of a challenging 2022, Brother has its sights set on getting back to ‘business as usual’; we talk to managing director PHIL JONES to get the lowdown
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s a company, Brother needs little introduction. A well-known information, communication and technology supplier with roots stretching back to the late 19th century, Brother has been successful in remaining relevant over many decades of business. UK managing director, Phil Jones, has been with the company since 1994, and as MD since 2013. Summarising last year for Brother, Phil admitted, “I think we’ll all be rather pleased to see 2022 behind us, for sure.” Most notably, the end of 2022 brought with it the end to some of the significant supply chain challenges companies like Brother have faced, while they were waiting for shipping, production, factories, capacity and components to get back to business as usual. “One of our greatest challenges has been the series of concurrent issues. Normally we’ve got one big problem to deal with, but I think over the last two years or so, we’ve probably had ten big things to deal with at the same time. This has caused lots of chaotic scenarios, where you’ve needed to think quite clearly through all of those.” Despite the challenging environment, Phil and his team
[12] SUMMER 2023
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learned a lot from the post-pandemic working environment. Being capable of handling pressure and difficult situations is a great quality to have, as well as appreciating what everyone else is going through. Phil noted, “The biggest lesson learnt was, in these times of great crisis, be careful, be patient, be observant of others, and don’t expect everyone to constantly be at your stand, because we all deal with these difficulties and pressures differently.” But Brother did have some highlights in 2022, notably, “We were the first business in the UK to achieve Investors in People platinum for the third time. So, that was an absolute breakthrough for the business.” Recruitment continues to be a challenge for many businesses, and Phil believes that securing the award for the third time will not only attract new talent to the company but will also flag the industry as a great place to work. Looking ahead, there is still much to be done at Brother, but Phil believes they are making great progress into getting back onto the front foot. Focus right now is largely on ramping up, given the unblocking of the supply chain, and getting into a more ‘business as usual’ scenario.