The humble cup of tea is a British institution. In this month’s Success feature, in conjunction with the North East Chamber of Commerce, Louise Robinson talks to Steve Eastham, VP operations director (Europe) of Tata Global Beverages, the company behind the much-loved Tetley brand, to find out how its Eaglescliffe plant is brewing up a perfect blend.

NISSAN is so often held up as the shining light of manufacturing in the North-East.

But tucked away on the outskirts of Stockton is the beating heart of a brand that was brought to life by the Teafolk, a product that, in its own way, drives the nation – Tetley.

As you approach Tata Global Beverages’ Eaglescliffe plant, it becomes clear that this really is the operational nerve centre of the Tetley brand, with delivery vans arriving by the dozen to take away the 780 tonnes of tea – that’s 262 million teabags – that are produced here each week.

Steve Eastham, who joined the Tata Beverage Group in 2007, is part of a management team that has helped to transform working practices at the 40-year-old plant, which employs 487 people.

Along with plant manager Tony Stubbs and global HR process manager Kevin Wilson, Steve has vastly improved efficiency, ensuring that the North-East operation is the most productive of Tata Global Beverage’s seven manufacturing plants around the world.

He said: “When the management team came together three years ago, the thing that struck us very, very hard was that the strategy of the business up here in the North-East was not particularly clear.

“Everyone was working hard, but no one really understood the impact that their role had on the business overall.

“We knew that we needed to introduce one single strategy that everyone within the plant could get behind, ensuring that we were all pushing really hard in the same direction.

“The goal was to increase competitiveness.

“And this is something the team believe they have gone some way towards achieving.

“As you go through the layers of the plant, it is quite clear that everybody’s role is different, but what is vital is that they all add up to the same thing – to be competitive.

“I am sure that if you were to go onto the factory floor, what you would see is that they have a real understanding of how their job, and what they do when they come in to work each day, is adding up to that bigger picture.

“Up until recently, the plant was running in the same way that it had been for the past 40 years, with people coming in, making teabags, and thinking that the plant was going to be here forever.

“Then came the realisation that we had to change and adapt to remain competitive.”

And the plant has certainly adapted.

Over the past three years, time and money has been invested into Tata’s Eaglescliffe factory to ensure that it is fit for purpose.

EQUIPMENT at the plant has been renewed and processes changed to improve reliability, while work has been done to create a strong culture of success, as well as better staff training – all of which has helped bring the plant firmly into the 21st Century.

Mr Eastham said: “We wanted to demonstrate that a well-run operation in the North-East was a match for anyone and we knew that we had all of the raw materials to make a really successful site here, but it needed to be brought up to date.

“The owners have invested many millions of pounds into the plant over the past three years and that really does show the faith that they have in us, here in the North-East.

“For a long time we operated with a breakdown and fix mentality – very reactive.

But with investment from the owners of Tata, we have managed to change that, so we now have the support in place to be much more proactive and preventative.

“That has really helped us to improve productivity. Had we stayed where we were, it is questionable whether we’d be looking forward to such a bright future.”

While automation has formed an important part of the efficiency measures put in place at the factory, the investment in staff is something that Mr Eastham believes has really helped drive forward results and increase efficiency by 25 per cent over the course of the past three years, to achieve the world-class standard at which it now operates.

The business has invested heavily in its people, with nearly £500,000 of training and development having taken place since 2007.

Ninety per cent of Tata’s workforce is qualified to NVQ Level 2 standard. This is something that the management team plans to build on.

Mr Eastham added: “The people here are absolutely crucial to our success. We have a hardworking, committed workforce, and while there is a certain amount that can be achieved through automation, the lifeblood of the factory is its people.

“Our success ultimately depends on the team that is behind it.

“We want to give our staff opportunities to develop their skills and grow with the company. Through investing in our people, we are demonstrating, in a tangible way, that we want them to achieve.”

THE work undertaken to develop staff led to the company being named best Large Employer and Outstanding Employer of the Year at the Class – Celebrating Learning and Skills Success – Awards 2010. But the team at Tata continues to explore ways of improving staff development, aiming to increase the number of training days for staff from 15 per year, to 25, by 2013.

Steve Eastham said: “We’re quite clear that the continued development of our people is crucial to our success. However, we are also exploring ways of tapping into the skills and learning of other big businesses operating in the North-East to share best practice and improve our ways of working.

“We have some world leading companies in the North-East.

“We’d like to give them the benefit of our knowledge, while understanding ways in which we could implement their expert processes to further improve our ways of working.”

In coming together with other businesses in the area, Steve believes that there is an opportunity for the region to grow its reputation nationally and internationally, and make North-East England more successful, adding: “The North-East is a fantastic place. It’s got brilliant people, and it’s got some really, really good businesses. It has all of the assets to be a great business place, so it’s difficult to understand why it isn’t more successful than it currently is.

“I think we’re getting to the stage where we, and other big businesses, need to start to blow our own trumpet a little bit louder, and show people outside of the area what we do and what we can do.

“We ought to be trying to promote the North-East and encourage investment to come into this area rather than anywhere else.”

And the aim for Eaglescliffe?

“We’re still working towards a fiveyear plan that we set out in 2007.

“That plan is all about improving efficiency year on year and becoming better and better at what we do.

“We aim to be the best factory in the UK, and that is something that we believe we have the people, systems and skills to achieve.”

By continuing to strike the delicate balance between people development and cost savings, the Tata factory, it seems, has found the perfect blend for business success.