News - Midlands
COVER STORY: No Barriers
For someone who was never supposed to be involved in the business in the first place, Dani Saveker has made a pretty spectacular success of her ten years at the century-old family metal bashing firm, Savekers. In the decade since she arrived as a newly graduated 21-year-old on a temporary contract, she has breathed new life into the firm, battling against prejudice and gender stereotype along the way to becoming its chief executive.
Savekers now produces one of the UK's biggest ranges of manufactured architectural metalwork for shopfitters, architects, designers, glass merchants and builders. Turnover has doubled in the two years she has been in charge and the company is on track to reach £36m this year.
I meet Dani, now 32, in the Perry Bar factory that has become her empire. Immediately destroying any tough boss-woman in a man's world stereotypes, she is disarmingly modest and down to earth. The photo-shoot has been arranged to take place inside the factory and Dani has obligingly donned an immaculate white trouser suit for the occasion, in striking contrast to the dirt and dust of the factory floor. How would Dani feel about striking a commanding pose in her sparkling white suit with a few of the welders at her feet, the art director wonders? "Absolutely not," Dani says, politely but firmly. "That's not what I'm about at all."
As we trail round the factory after Dani, looking for the best backdrop for some less compromising shots, it soon becomes obvious what she means. Amid the cacophony, and the hails of sparks of the polishing room, where dull metal is transformed to lucid brightness, Dani is totally at ease, exchanging banter with overall-clad shop floor workers. The mutual respect between boss and workers is obvious.
"Dani in the media spotlight again?" laughs sales manager Gary Speak, who has wandered over to see what's going on. Savekers' staff have become used to the increasing attention their chief executive is attracting.
The photo shoot over, Dani seems relieved to be out of the limelight and admits she sometimes finds the media interest bewildering. But, I remind her, her story is an inspiring one. She has turned around a company through skilful team building, brave decision making and a timely MBO, and risen to head a group of companies that now has a bright future. Not only that but she is also a single mother of two small children. So, how does she do it? Is she a superwoman with the Midas touch?
"Well I did always want to run my own business, even when I was a child," says Dani. "I suppose it was an unusual goal for a little girl but it seemed natural to me, although I never for one moment considered the family business."
Founded in 1903 by Dani's great grandfather, nearly a century later Savekers was a company still entrenched in its own past. Directorships were passed on exclusively to male family members, regardless of whether they had any business acumen or not. Phrases such as, "Do you realise who I am?" were commonly heard among rank-pulling family members, sales calls were not made, the phone never rang.
Dani, meanwhile, had just graduated from Teesside University with a degree in product design & marketing. Martin Saveker, a third cousin of hers, was managing the family business and suggested that Dani spend a short time at the firm on a temporary contract to design a retractable barrier.
The assignment meant Dani had to roll up her sleeves and get her hands dirty on the shop floor to find out what was involved in the manufacture of her product. As a family member she was also asked to cover other areas of the company when people were off sick or on holiday.
"I was paid a pittance," she exclaims. "Junior family members were very much looked down on and it was part of the whole induction and initiation that you would be made to suffer. With hindsight though, it was actually a very good way for me to come into the company and it certainly tested out whether I had any ambition."
Needless to say, Dani did have ambition. Despite it being made clear there would be no real role for her in the company, she made the most of what she assumed would be her short time there. "I got more involved in some of the redesign of existing products and the six months I was supposed to be here turned into a year. I started getting experience in sales, purchasing, all the other aspects of the business as well as establishing a strong relationship with the shop floor staff who were working on my products."
As she garnered more and more experience the sudden early retirement of Savekers' works director led Martin Saveker to appoint Dani as production manager. At 26 she was put in charge of more than 40 staff, many of whom had over 35 years' experience in manufacturing.
"I thought the new job sounded interesting and was really an extension of what I'd been doing," she explains. "I spoke to a couple of people I would be working closely with to check they'd be ok with it, because I was aware there'd be a lot of antagonistic feeling, especially from one of the directors, my uncle. He was very traditional in his views and believed that women didn't really do that kind of thing.
"If I'd been working in the office and doing something nice and clean and simple, that wouldn't have been so bad. But the fact that I would be working in production was quite something and it caused a lot of problems at board level."
In the face of overt family disquiet, Martin and Dani hatched a plan of action that would see Dani make much-needed improvements in efficiency, health and safety and general morale.
"The hostility I encountered meant nothing to me really," Dani recalls. "I suppose I was so busy getting on with the job I just wasn't aware of the hurdles I was facing. Probably a good thing too. As far as I was concerned this was just the next stage of the job. The fact some people weren't very keen on it was their problem not mine."
With Martin's support, Dani set about a fundamental reorganisation of the shop floor. Under her plans, supervisors, who for years had sat behind desks telling everyone else what to do, were replaced with team leaders charged with instilling a team spirit and empowering shop floor employees. "The shop floor staff had fantastic ideas and tremendous skills and talent and I was determined they wouldn't be wasted any longer," says Dani.
"If you want the business to thrive you need the best people. The level of respect I had from the staff when I was doing the reorganisation came about because I'd spent time understanding people," Dani explains. "Still now I could tell you something about every employee's family or private life or something that's important to them. That's not because I think I can get more work out of them that way but because I care about the people here - they're fantastic."
With the shop floor in better shape, Dani was promoted to production director. When her ally Martin then announced he was to sell his shares she saw the opportunity to do the MBO that would enable her to continue her improvements and ultimately take over the company.
First, though, she had to get the business into better order. Defying family outrage, Dani succeeded in getting rid of two directors, one of whom was the aforementioned uncle, and replacing them with senior management teams.
"In most family businesses there are family members who work for the business who clearly aren't the best person for that job. I wanted all that misplaced loyalty to end," she says. "It was a very hard task to have to make my own uncle redundant. Family members had always known drastic changes were necessary but for various issues had not been able to carry them out."
Dani believes it was the unplanned way she came into the company that gave her more scope to implement radical change. "I was never really seen as one of them so that made it easier in a way to do things differently."
In preparation for the buyout, Dani introduced liberating changes in every layer of the organisation, strengthening the teamwork and trust she had built up among the staff. "At every level I'd had to interrogate staff to find out what they thought was wrong with the company and what needed to change. It took a long time to build up people's trust on that because they felt they might be betraying their bosses, but my door was always open and gradually people began to come in and talk to me more and more."
With the directors gone and a newly empowered workforce the company culture changed almost overnight. Sales began to soar and the phone began to ring. "For the first time we had sales staff actually going out to visit customers and that was utterly unheard of before," recounts Dani gleefully.
But with business going well, six months after the directors left she received a phone call at 6.30 one Monday morning to inform her there were 15 fire engines and 80 firefighters outside the production plant. Savekers' factory was burning down.
A faulty heating element in a chrome tank was found to be the cause of the blaze, which resulted in extensive damage. The clean-up operation, which involved the team leaders donning protective clothing and breathing masks, was so perfectly executed it was used as a case study by the insurance broker.
Despite the setback and inevitable lost orders, the business continued to function by outsourcing to other suppliers. Within a few months it was fully functioning once more with a bigger, better, redesigned plating shop.
By the following June (2003) the £32.4m MBO was completed. Just a month later Savekers acquired Pride in Design, a Smethwick based metalwork and joinery outfit supplying the retail industry. With little cash to spare after the buyout, the acquisition was eventually structured as an earn-out, which enabled the deal to go through without excessive costs up front.
In May this year the joinery arm of the group, Sav Joinery, also acquired Mansfield-based homeware goods display company Table Trading Company, enabling it to expand its product range to include display units for the retail market.
Further acquisitions are now on the cards for Savekers, which is currently in talks with three firms, and Dani says she is excited about the proposition of expansion. Her plans include offering an increasingly diverse range of products and services to meet the needs of the 20,000 customers already on the database.
But Dani maintains that her greatest satisfaction at Savekers has been the difference she has made to the lives of the staff. "My best day ever was when someone walked into my office and told me that everything I'd done had made his life so much better that he now enjoyed coming to work. There is no better compliment and if you can get that it doesn't matter what turnover you've got because it will look after itself
Doing it my way
With no formal business training, Dani is eloquent on the instinctive style of management that has been so productive for Savekers.
Communication and empathy are words she returns to constantly when describing her business ethos, and although she is reluctant to categorise them as female traits she concedes that they are more often displayed by women than by men.
"I do think it's starting to change for the better but a lot of men tend to miss the point because they don't take time to listen to people. They take everything at face value and miss the vital details. But if you want a sincere workforce and a real change at the heart of things then it's got to be about communicating and empathising with people."
She maintains that her basic business sense was learnt as a child from her mother and says she tries to instil the same things in her own children. "Manners and fairness are very important. Don't start something and not finish it, whether it's your meal and your brussel sprouts or a business project. Respecting other people and being polite, dealing with other people as you would like to be treated yourself - it's all basic stuff.
"So often managers, especially male ones I have to say, don't show respect to people below them. They seem to believe they have a status above and beyond anyone else, but everyone is important in their own way."
Dani also believes in breaking down the barriers that, especially in the male dominated world of business, have traditionally existed between work and personal life. She says it makes good sense to treat staff's family problems sympathetically, and employees are encouraged to take time out if they have personal issues to deal with. "People can't possibly concentrate at work if they're having a personal crisis that needs to be sorted out.
"My staff have been there for me during difficult times. They've seen me cry, they know I'm human and it's the least I can do to make sure I'm there for them when they have a crisis. None of us is invincible - things happen and it's part of life. Business should not be alien to that and inhuman, but sadly it often does seem to be."
As a female entrepreneur, Dani admits she still gets a mischievous enjoyment at disarming unsuspecting visitors who turn up expecting a meeting with a Danny, rather than a Dani. I can always tell when I've caught them off guard," she smiles. "But again, it's an advantage. It gives me the chance to prove myself on my own terms."
Taking charge
Savekers' buyout was completed in the firm's centenary year
As chief executive and chairman, Dani and Martin Saveker acquired Savekers in June 2003 in an MBO valued at £32.4m. The deal was arranged by Richard Baizley's team at Birmingham law firm Shakespeares. "I felt Richard (Baizley) was someone who understood my vision and would be a support to me in future acquisitions too," says Dani.
The terms of the deal meant the firm retained its sleeping shareholders, all Saveker family members and some former company directors. But the deal also gave the management team greater control over the growth of the company, as well as the opportunity to offer share options to its workforce.
The same month, strike action was averted when workers accepted a 4.5 per cent pay rise in a package that included free shares with options to buy more. Birmingham-based Transport & General Workers Union organiser Joe Clarke described the offer as one of the best deals in manufacturing that year.
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Savekers now produces one of the UK's biggest ranges of manufactured architectural metalwork for shopfitters, architects, designers, glass merchants and builders. Turnover has doubled in the two years she has been in charge and the company is on track to reach £36m this year.
I meet Dani, now 32, in the Perry Bar factory that has become her empire. Immediately destroying any tough boss-woman in a man's world stereotypes, she is disarmingly modest and down to earth. The photo-shoot has been arranged to take place inside the factory and Dani has obligingly donned an immaculate white trouser suit for the occasion, in striking contrast to the dirt and dust of the factory floor. How would Dani feel about striking a commanding pose in her sparkling white suit with a few of the welders at her feet, the art director wonders? "Absolutely not," Dani says, politely but firmly. "That's not what I'm about at all."
As we trail round the factory after Dani, looking for the best backdrop for some less compromising shots, it soon becomes obvious what she means. Amid the cacophony, and the hails of sparks of the polishing room, where dull metal is transformed to lucid brightness, Dani is totally at ease, exchanging banter with overall-clad shop floor workers. The mutual respect between boss and workers is obvious.
"Dani in the media spotlight again?" laughs sales manager Gary Speak, who has wandered over to see what's going on. Savekers' staff have become used to the increasing attention their chief executive is attracting.
The photo shoot over, Dani seems relieved to be out of the limelight and admits she sometimes finds the media interest bewildering. But, I remind her, her story is an inspiring one. She has turned around a company through skilful team building, brave decision making and a timely MBO, and risen to head a group of companies that now has a bright future. Not only that but she is also a single mother of two small children. So, how does she do it? Is she a superwoman with the Midas touch?
"Well I did always want to run my own business, even when I was a child," says Dani. "I suppose it was an unusual goal for a little girl but it seemed natural to me, although I never for one moment considered the family business."
Founded in 1903 by Dani's great grandfather, nearly a century later Savekers was a company still entrenched in its own past. Directorships were passed on exclusively to male family members, regardless of whether they had any business acumen or not. Phrases such as, "Do you realise who I am?" were commonly heard among rank-pulling family members, sales calls were not made, the phone never rang.
Dani, meanwhile, had just graduated from Teesside University with a degree in product design & marketing. Martin Saveker, a third cousin of hers, was managing the family business and suggested that Dani spend a short time at the firm on a temporary contract to design a retractable barrier.
The assignment meant Dani had to roll up her sleeves and get her hands dirty on the shop floor to find out what was involved in the manufacture of her product. As a family member she was also asked to cover other areas of the company when people were off sick or on holiday.
"I was paid a pittance," she exclaims. "Junior family members were very much looked down on and it was part of the whole induction and initiation that you would be made to suffer. With hindsight though, it was actually a very good way for me to come into the company and it certainly tested out whether I had any ambition."
Needless to say, Dani did have ambition. Despite it being made clear there would be no real role for her in the company, she made the most of what she assumed would be her short time there. "I got more involved in some of the redesign of existing products and the six months I was supposed to be here turned into a year. I started getting experience in sales, purchasing, all the other aspects of the business as well as establishing a strong relationship with the shop floor staff who were working on my products."
As she garnered more and more experience the sudden early retirement of Savekers' works director led Martin Saveker to appoint Dani as production manager. At 26 she was put in charge of more than 40 staff, many of whom had over 35 years' experience in manufacturing.
"I thought the new job sounded interesting and was really an extension of what I'd been doing," she explains. "I spoke to a couple of people I would be working closely with to check they'd be ok with it, because I was aware there'd be a lot of antagonistic feeling, especially from one of the directors, my uncle. He was very traditional in his views and believed that women didn't really do that kind of thing.
"If I'd been working in the office and doing something nice and clean and simple, that wouldn't have been so bad. But the fact that I would be working in production was quite something and it caused a lot of problems at board level."
In the face of overt family disquiet, Martin and Dani hatched a plan of action that would see Dani make much-needed improvements in efficiency, health and safety and general morale.
"The hostility I encountered meant nothing to me really," Dani recalls. "I suppose I was so busy getting on with the job I just wasn't aware of the hurdles I was facing. Probably a good thing too. As far as I was concerned this was just the next stage of the job. The fact some people weren't very keen on it was their problem not mine."
With Martin's support, Dani set about a fundamental reorganisation of the shop floor. Under her plans, supervisors, who for years had sat behind desks telling everyone else what to do, were replaced with team leaders charged with instilling a team spirit and empowering shop floor employees. "The shop floor staff had fantastic ideas and tremendous skills and talent and I was determined they wouldn't be wasted any longer," says Dani.
"If you want the business to thrive you need the best people. The level of respect I had from the staff when I was doing the reorganisation came about because I'd spent time understanding people," Dani explains. "Still now I could tell you something about every employee's family or private life or something that's important to them. That's not because I think I can get more work out of them that way but because I care about the people here - they're fantastic."
With the shop floor in better shape, Dani was promoted to production director. When her ally Martin then announced he was to sell his shares she saw the opportunity to do the MBO that would enable her to continue her improvements and ultimately take over the company.
First, though, she had to get the business into better order. Defying family outrage, Dani succeeded in getting rid of two directors, one of whom was the aforementioned uncle, and replacing them with senior management teams.
"In most family businesses there are family members who work for the business who clearly aren't the best person for that job. I wanted all that misplaced loyalty to end," she says. "It was a very hard task to have to make my own uncle redundant. Family members had always known drastic changes were necessary but for various issues had not been able to carry them out."
Dani believes it was the unplanned way she came into the company that gave her more scope to implement radical change. "I was never really seen as one of them so that made it easier in a way to do things differently."
In preparation for the buyout, Dani introduced liberating changes in every layer of the organisation, strengthening the teamwork and trust she had built up among the staff. "At every level I'd had to interrogate staff to find out what they thought was wrong with the company and what needed to change. It took a long time to build up people's trust on that because they felt they might be betraying their bosses, but my door was always open and gradually people began to come in and talk to me more and more."
With the directors gone and a newly empowered workforce the company culture changed almost overnight. Sales began to soar and the phone began to ring. "For the first time we had sales staff actually going out to visit customers and that was utterly unheard of before," recounts Dani gleefully.
But with business going well, six months after the directors left she received a phone call at 6.30 one Monday morning to inform her there were 15 fire engines and 80 firefighters outside the production plant. Savekers' factory was burning down.
A faulty heating element in a chrome tank was found to be the cause of the blaze, which resulted in extensive damage. The clean-up operation, which involved the team leaders donning protective clothing and breathing masks, was so perfectly executed it was used as a case study by the insurance broker.
Despite the setback and inevitable lost orders, the business continued to function by outsourcing to other suppliers. Within a few months it was fully functioning once more with a bigger, better, redesigned plating shop.
By the following June (2003) the £32.4m MBO was completed. Just a month later Savekers acquired Pride in Design, a Smethwick based metalwork and joinery outfit supplying the retail industry. With little cash to spare after the buyout, the acquisition was eventually structured as an earn-out, which enabled the deal to go through without excessive costs up front.
In May this year the joinery arm of the group, Sav Joinery, also acquired Mansfield-based homeware goods display company Table Trading Company, enabling it to expand its product range to include display units for the retail market.
Further acquisitions are now on the cards for Savekers, which is currently in talks with three firms, and Dani says she is excited about the proposition of expansion. Her plans include offering an increasingly diverse range of products and services to meet the needs of the 20,000 customers already on the database.
But Dani maintains that her greatest satisfaction at Savekers has been the difference she has made to the lives of the staff. "My best day ever was when someone walked into my office and told me that everything I'd done had made his life so much better that he now enjoyed coming to work. There is no better compliment and if you can get that it doesn't matter what turnover you've got because it will look after itself
Doing it my way
With no formal business training, Dani is eloquent on the instinctive style of management that has been so productive for Savekers.
Communication and empathy are words she returns to constantly when describing her business ethos, and although she is reluctant to categorise them as female traits she concedes that they are more often displayed by women than by men.
"I do think it's starting to change for the better but a lot of men tend to miss the point because they don't take time to listen to people. They take everything at face value and miss the vital details. But if you want a sincere workforce and a real change at the heart of things then it's got to be about communicating and empathising with people."
She maintains that her basic business sense was learnt as a child from her mother and says she tries to instil the same things in her own children. "Manners and fairness are very important. Don't start something and not finish it, whether it's your meal and your brussel sprouts or a business project. Respecting other people and being polite, dealing with other people as you would like to be treated yourself - it's all basic stuff.
"So often managers, especially male ones I have to say, don't show respect to people below them. They seem to believe they have a status above and beyond anyone else, but everyone is important in their own way."
Dani also believes in breaking down the barriers that, especially in the male dominated world of business, have traditionally existed between work and personal life. She says it makes good sense to treat staff's family problems sympathetically, and employees are encouraged to take time out if they have personal issues to deal with. "People can't possibly concentrate at work if they're having a personal crisis that needs to be sorted out.
"My staff have been there for me during difficult times. They've seen me cry, they know I'm human and it's the least I can do to make sure I'm there for them when they have a crisis. None of us is invincible - things happen and it's part of life. Business should not be alien to that and inhuman, but sadly it often does seem to be."
As a female entrepreneur, Dani admits she still gets a mischievous enjoyment at disarming unsuspecting visitors who turn up expecting a meeting with a Danny, rather than a Dani. I can always tell when I've caught them off guard," she smiles. "But again, it's an advantage. It gives me the chance to prove myself on my own terms."
Taking charge
Savekers' buyout was completed in the firm's centenary year
As chief executive and chairman, Dani and Martin Saveker acquired Savekers in June 2003 in an MBO valued at £32.4m. The deal was arranged by Richard Baizley's team at Birmingham law firm Shakespeares. "I felt Richard (Baizley) was someone who understood my vision and would be a support to me in future acquisitions too," says Dani.
The terms of the deal meant the firm retained its sleeping shareholders, all Saveker family members and some former company directors. But the deal also gave the management team greater control over the growth of the company, as well as the opportunity to offer share options to its workforce.
The same month, strike action was averted when workers accepted a 4.5 per cent pay rise in a package that included free shares with options to buy more. Birmingham-based Transport & General Workers Union organiser Joe Clarke described the offer as one of the best deals in manufacturing that year.
For the fuller picture,
subscribe to Insider
every month.