Time Never Stands Still at Merson Group

Thought Leadership: Time Never Stands Still at Merson Group.

Andy Henderson, Chief Implementation Officer of Merson Group reflects on his time with the company, what has changed and what has essentially stayed the same during its growth.

Last month we celebrated 85 years of trading at Merson Group and I have had the privilege to be working here for 35 years, and couldn’t be happier working in such a progressive and dynamic organisation.

I started my career in signage at an engineering training school who found you placements and I had three offers and chose Merson. I worked as an apprentice metal fabricator from aged 16 and everyone I worked with talked about Merson as it was the hip place to be – the creatives and signage teams who had had music playing on the production floor.

Merson then was a small team with 14 people in the office and 20 on the factory floor, with three installation crews. A local crowd, the place was bright, inviting and was the coolest place in East Kilbride. Not much has changed in 35 years in terms of it being the ‘cool’ place to be. One of my first jobs was to build a new showpiece clock for the Tarbert Hotel, still one of my favourite pieces of all time – excuse the pun.

The biggest change in the business for me came around 1997, when we won Volvo UK rebrand, and that then led to us winning many contracts in various sectors. As well as this allowing another facility to be opened, the whole team felt a palpable change and we realised we could rival any global signage company. From then to now I’m so proud of the scale of this company; from artisan business to a high-volume manufacturer with a pan European footprint, we are dedicated to providing the best service for our clients and for each other.

Roddy Angus, our CEO joined in 2000, and brought with him a vision that was focused and exciting. He uncovered and championed even more potential, and pulled together a superb leadership team, which of course excelled when I joined in 2007. Our leadership team champion each and every member of Merson and I think this rubs off on our clients, as they know we care. In fact, a memorable Merson moment was a site survey visit at a major car dealership who had a real complex signage requirement. When we walked into the meeting the whole room, contractors, and client representation stood up and cheered that Merson were on the job…I was a 27-year-old manager at the time and will never forget that.

An iconic build for me was the Olympics as we built the rings. That is something I will be telling my family for years to come, a proud Merson and Henderson family moment. And we are a family at Merson, one now not just in East Kilbride but with colleagues in London and Poland. Our clients too are of a global scale, we are working with the V&A, Heathrow, Tesco, Network Rail and Aston Martin – who knew that the Gorbals factory of 85 years ago is now a company delivering for the most iconic brands in the world. That is the Merson effect: dedicated teams, pioneering strategies, hard work, and passionate love of what we do.

As we celebrate 85 incredible years, I think on how time has flown. How will I celebrate? We are going to refurbish that Tarbert Hotel Clock I built in my first year. So, time never does stand still at Merson Group, it moves with the times, and I want to be there for every second.

If you fancy joining Merson Group and being a part of the next 85 years, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch enquiries@mersongroup.com.