Today we are talking to John Knox about the structure of Biopaints plant. John's the General Manager of the Bath factory. John, do you think you could tell us something about the way Biopaints is actually organized?
Er... yes, certainly. Urn... we employ about two thousand people in all in two different locations. Most people work here at our headquarters plant. And this is where we have the administrative departments, of course.
Perhaps you could say something about the departmental structure?
Yes, certainly. Urn.., now.., er... first of all we've got four main divisions. There's the production division which, as the name suggests, is responsible for production operations. And as you know we've got two factories, er... one here in Bath, UK, and the other in Lille, France. Er... Philippe Rochard is the other General Manager, there in Lille.
And you're completely independent of each other, is that right?
Oh, yes, yes. Our... our two plants are fairly independent. I mean, I... am responsible to Bill Williamson, the Production Manager, and we have to cooperate closely with.., with Helga Meier, the Marketing Manager.
Mm.
But otherwise, as far as day-to-day running is concerned, we're pretty much left alone to get on with the job. Haha. Oh, and I forgot to mention the most important division of all, some people say. That's finance. Er... the Financial Director is Fred Rasmussen. He's a very important man. And his task is to make sure the money-side of things is OK. The accountant and such people, they report to him directly.
Is that all? Um.
Oh, no, no, no, no. There's personnel.
Yes.
That's quite separate. David Hopper is Personnel Manager. And the Training Manager reports to him of course.
But I imagine that a firm such as your own has smaller departments within the divisions?
Oh yes, that's the case, yes. I mentioned that we are fairly independent.
What about Research and Development? Isn't that a separate department?
Well, in terms of the laboratories, there are.., there are two er... one at each production plant. But it's a department in the production division and it has a single head. And that's Piet Van De Geer.
Are there any other features worth mentioning?
Well, if we take our division, which of course I know best, we've got several other departments, which all report, as I said, to Bill Williamson and which I am responsible for on this site. Er... now there's the..., er..., planning department. Ray Wood is in charge of that. And a purchasing department er... they buy in the materials for production.
Yes, and what about the board of directors and the chairman?
Yes, well, they're at the top, aren't they, of course? I... I mean, a couple of the executives are directors themselves. The Managing Director, of course, that's Ernest Roberts and then there's...