Festive focus: Our catchup with Dortech Architectural Systems MD James Sutherland

It’s that time of year again. The Christmas rush. The manic high-street shopping. The alarming convenience of one-click online purchases. The nail-biting potential for drama at the staff party.

All that aside, December’s a time when we’re able to reflect on our achievements and failures of the last 12 months, and look ahead with a bit more foresight and wisdom than we had this time last year.

The Festive Focus series we’re running this month will look to highlight all that and more. Throughout each week in December, we’ll be sharing insights from key businesspeople in the North East, Yorkshire & Humber and London.

Today we have James Sutherland, managing director of Huddersfield-based Dortech Architectural Systems.

Can you introduce yourself and your business to our readers?

“I am the managing director of Dortech Architectural Systems Ltd and have been involved in the company for over 14 years.

“Dortech is a specialist glazing contractor, who has been designing, manufacturing and installing glazed facades throughout the UK for over 25 years. As a business, we have experience delivering glazing projects of various sizes and complexities, ranging from £25k up to £3m.”

What was your company’s biggest achievement of the year?

“Embarking on a major factory reconfiguration and investment in new machinery, supported by the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership.”

How would you approach 2018 differently, given the chance?

“We’d implement our ‘speak before send’ email reduction strategy, earlier than we did. Occasionally, people use emails for entirely the wrong reasons and so many problems can be resolved by simply picking the phone up and speaking with each other.”

What are your company’s plans for the new year?

“We will be preparing for further potential instability and hardening in the construction sector, by concentrating on the elements of our business that we know can add value, particularly to existing installations. 2019 will be a big year for our glazing maintenance division, for instance.

“We also plan to consolidate our software and processes from department to department, to increase efficiencies and ensure our staff are all speaking the same ‘language’.

“Specifically, we’ll invest in areas including: the growth and enhancement of our senior management team; the installation of new CNC machinery; and the continued growth of Dortech Maintenance.”

What’s your favourite Christmas song?

“Wizzard, I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day.”