Stuart Reynolds, sales director at MAD CCTV for 14 years, has retired from the security business which he has grown from its inception in 2000. Replacing him is former Synectics managing director Philip Longley who has pledged to grow the export business and develop the product range.
Renowned for quality and reliability, MAD is a British manufacturer of traditional pan & tilt heads and housings, integrated camera systems and a range of stainless steel units for hazardous and industrial applications.
Speaking to SecurityNewsDesk, Reynolds explained that when he joined the company in 2000, it had one CCTV product – a medium duty pan-tilt head which quickly became a best seller in the town centre CCTV market.
Competition in the camera mounting market was shrinking due to the acquisition of competitors by companies that weren’t interested in producing PT heads, so the company came to dominate its niche market and was soon achieving annual sales of around £1.8m.
However, like many businesses, MAD was badly affected by the recession, especially as a large share of its business came from government which was reducing budgets across the board, especially at the Highways Agency where MAD had enjoyed considerable success.
As the domestic market suffered, Reynolds turned to exports and with the help of the BSIA Export Council and UK Trade & Investment, he was able to win overseas business which now accounts for over 60 per cent of sales. “We were able to glean a lot of information from the BSIA, and funding from the UKTI has been very good for us, providing grants for exhibitions abroad which has helped enormously.”
Reynolds explained that he and Longley have known each other for years, often working together on contract bids which were good for Synectics and MAD.
The challenge for MAD is to develop integrated, solution-based products which fit into the changing security environment, he said. That will include the development of IP-based products and expansion of MAD’s camera mounts for long-range cameras requiring precision alignment.
On retirement, Stuart Reynolds said he is looking forward to non-company travel, working on his golf handicap and attending national hunt races with his wife.
Philip Longley is well known in the security industry already as the former managing director of Synectics. Having left the company a year ago, he was keen to get back into the security business and joining MAD represents “an interesting challenge to grow a small company again”.
Longley’s aim is to continue expanding the export business and modernising its products. “We have a specific niche that we can develop,” he said.
Many end-users have moved from PT heads which provide a positioning platform for any type of camera to integrated units such as Bosch’s Metal Mickey or 360 Vision’s Predator. But Longley says that leaves a gap in the specialised markets like hazardous environments and long-range surveillance which require big lenses mounted on very stable and finely controllable platforms.
Longley is also looking forward to developing the electronics behind the MAD CCTV product line.
MAD has also recently launched a vandal-resistant minidome and Longley sees significant opportunities in the military market not only for PT heads for CCTV but also positioning platforms for communications equipment.
Tackling the export market will require a great deal of international travel and face to face meetings with potential clients, but Longley also plans to continue working with the BSIA Export Council which he said was instrumental in helping to establish Synectics’ overseas relationships.
So it’s a significant change of personnel for a small company like MAD CCTV, but this British manufacturer has the manufacturing skills and capacity to continue delivering a top quality product and building on its success both in the UK and abroad.
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