Businessman Cliff Bathgate has been affectionately dubbed the "million mile man" because of his
extensive business globetrotting.
It’s the distance the senior manager with the Ellesmere Port-based Arena Instrumentation, installation and calibration company has notched up since joining the company 18 years ago.
“I manage the team of 14 engineers who install, maintain, service and calibrate the machinery of our clients around the world,” explained Arena’s Senior Manager, speaking from his office at the Rossmore Business Village.
“When the client needs a job doing, any member of our team can be dispatched anywhere around the globe at short notice – and that could also include me. It may sound exciting, but in reality it boils down to hours and hours travelling in cars on boats and in planes.”
In fact Cliff’s recent travels on behalf of Arena have taken him to Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Middle East, Israel, Russia, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and China.
Foreign trips can be as brief as a few days or commit members of his team for weeks.
“Many of our clients are global players,” added Cliff. “In some cases we have worked with them
for a number of years. They know us and our engineers and trust us to do a professional job.
“Hence over the past five years we have had between two and six people posted abroad each and every week. And because of the volume of work I find myself heading for the airport on a
regular basis too.
Arena’s many clients including Rolls Royce Energy Systems, RWE N-Power, global pharma brand Astra Zeneca and renewables specialists Infinis demand a round-the-clock service.
And when the call comes through Arena’s team responds quickly and efficiently.
However, because each job is unique, sometimes the expertise of the Arena team can solve problems for communities as well as industries.
“We were called out to do some repair work on some Rolls Royce gas turbine engines over in China recently,” explained Cliff. “We flew into Beijing and then had to get another plane that took us deep into the hinterland towards Outer Mongolia.
“When we eventually got on site we discovered the engines were providing the power supply for a remote town. The lights went out and didn’t come back on until after we arrived.”
Cliff, 42 who lives in West Derby, Liverpool, joined Arena after a spell as a technician with the Ministry of Defence.
He believes one of the reasons for Arena’s success, is the company’s reputation for providing a professional, engineering-based service.
“We can only do that by employing properly trained engineers and technicians,” he said.
“That’s why we now have our own in-house apprenticeship scheme and we ensure our apprentices learn their trade on the job. In fact I’ve even taken apprentices with me to assist in overseas engineering assignments.”
Although he’s not unhappy with the ‘Million Miles Man’ tag in recognition of the distance travelled on company business, Cliff privately admits the figure could be slightly inaccurate.
“Well I certainly didn’t count my miles travelled in the early days, so the true figure is almost certainly higher.”
For further information about Arena Instrumentation click onto www.arena-instrumentation.com
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