John Entwistle, founder of British Turntable Co, has retired from his post as Managing Director and is succeeded by his son, Tim Entwistle, whose engineering background and experience of both large and small companies make him ideally placed to take the British Turntable group of companies to the next level.
John Entwistle, who founded the company in 1959 after designing and building a low visibility car revolve for his father’s car showroom, will stay with the company on a part time basis to manage and work on special projects. His leadership and entrepreneurship have been instrumental in growing the company from a small one-man band manufacturing and marketing display turntables to the thriving company it is today.
“We had fantastic feedback from both customers and staff,” says Charles Bayer, Group Design Director. “The movement and mirrors really added impact to the display, giving everyone a fantastic view of the bed and all its features. It looked stunning on the front stand.”
British Turntable now designs and markets a diverse range of products such as retail display units, revolving stages for nightclubs and other leisure markets, car revolves to solve inner-city parking problems, HGV access turntables, materials handling carousels, transporters and lifting equipment, and large revolves capable of carrying a military tank or an aeroplane. Hovair Systems was incorporated into the company in 2003 to enhance its capabilities in air film engineering, and acquisition of Cawley Marine Industrial a year later brought with it exclusive rights to distribute Jung lifting equipment in the UK. The company exports to more than 120 countries world wide.
Since joining the company in March 2005, Tim Entwistle has worked as Operations Manager, managing shop floor operations including fabrication, assembly, fit out, install and servicing work on contract values ranging from under £1k to over £200k. He has also project managed site installations, a varied role that has included aspects of health and safety, human resources, contract management, marketing and ICT. Since joining the board in 2007 has been overseeing operations activities, including production and project management and purchasing, and developing system improvements to provide better efficiency and effectiveness.
Tim comments: “I’m delighted to have been given the opportunity to take the British Turntable Group into the future. Modern manufacturers have to work hard to maintain their competitiveness, and British Turntable has always been very aware of the need to improve its competitiveness in a global marketplace. We are already working hard on creating and developing sleek, smooth production operations and ensuring our stringent quality standards are adhered to, and I am looking forward to driving this forward.”
Tim, who was born, bred and lives in Bolton, gained a M.Eng degree in Manufacturing Management and B.Eng. degree with honours in Manufacturing Systems Engineering with Management at Nottingham Trent University before embarking on a MBA in Entrepreneurship course for owner-managed and small or medium sized enterprises at The University of Manchester. He is a member of The Institution of Engineering and Technology.
His previous employment has been in strategic process management roles, including production controller and subsequently project engineer at Marl International Group in Cumbria, improvement implementation manager and production control manager at Bombardier Transportation in Crewe, and systems advisor and IT consultant for Bartec (UK).
