Midlands Enterprise Awards 2021

45 | Midlands Enterprise Awards 2021 Being a successful company is often not just down to the products made and sold, it is also helped by a strong management team. We speak to Jane Smith, MD of Jointine Products (Lincoln) Ltd, about her resilience over the last 18 months and how this has impacted the firm. Jointine Products (Lincoln) Ltd (Jointine) is a manufacturing firm in North Hykeham, Lincoln, and it specialises in manufacturing paper gasket materials. With an impressive track record for a small family-owned business of just 17 staff, Jointine is the only business of its kind in the UK and has just two major competitors in the world, supplying to more than 50 countries. Its brand names, Flexoid®, Cranflex® and Oakenstrong® dominate the international market and the firm has a repeat order rate of more than 95%. In case you are not familiar with gaskets, these are used where two surfaces are joined together under compression. The gasket fits between the two parts to form a seal and prevent leakage. Although Jointine doesn’t cut gaskets, it does supply rolls of material to the gasket cutters of the world. Quality and professionalism are the firm’s unique selling point. It manufactures to ASTM F104, which is an internationally recognised industry standard, and is a member of the Institute of Export, the Confederation of Paper Industries, with MD Jane Smith also being on the Leaders Council of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. “It is hard to talk about success when more than four million people worldwide have lost their lives to the Covid pandemic,” empathises Managing Director, Jane Smith. “It feels terribly hollow to describe how our order book was 40% behind plan when people were literally fighting for their lives. But we still had a responsibility to the welfare of seventeen people in the business, which is what we focussed on.” Jointine adopted a strategy of processing whatever work it had as soon as possible, which Small Family Business of the Year – East Midlands would ensure there were no backlogs when shutdown ended. It meant the firm was unable to draw on the furlough scheme, but it made little business sense to Jane and the team to shut down in three-week blocks. With plenty of downtime, Jointine committed to paying salaries in full throughout and it has also successfully remained Covid-free to date. “We accept that with cases rising this may not be realistic in the long term, and we have prepared contingency plans for this eventuality,” continues Jane. “We are pleased to say that 2021 has been relentlessly busy but bringing an entirely different catalogue of challenges to rise to, including rising raw material prices, through to cardboard and paper shortages. But we survived a global pandemic, so how hard can this be, eh?” Jane herself is strength personified. Having been made a widow at the onset of the pandemic she put all of that aside to steer the company successfully through the challenges, whilst rewriting procedures and processes to be Brexit- ready. Jane wishes to thank her staff for their support and positivity which make the Company so successful. “We truly value the recognition given to us by the Midlands Enterprise Awards,” Jane enthuses. “Being named as Small Family Business of the Year is such a wonderful way to recognise these achievements.” Contact: Jane Smith Company: Jointine Products (Lincoln) Ltd Web Address: www.jointine.co.uk Jul21065