The end is nigh

Almost the end of another busy year, it seems only moments ago that we were celebrating the start of 2009 and here we are entering a new decade.

I would like to wish all our customers and suppliers and especially all my colleagues a very merry Christmas and a fantastic (and profitable) New Year.

Your wife is always right!

My wife always says things go wrong in 3's and boy was she right this month.

it started with the main hard disk in my office PC deciding that it no longer wanted to work, then proceding with my SatNav deciding the same thing while I was driving back to the airport in Birmingham Alabama and finishing with my portable hard disk that I use when traveling agreeing with the aformentioned items. Well according to my wife that should be the end if it, I do have my fingers crossed while typing this, so you will have to forgive any spelling mistakes.

Boy what a couple of weeks.

I am hoping that my luck is now on the turn for the better!

Around the World

Since my last visit I have been very busy both in my business and my personal life, my son is now learning to drive and my nerves and my finger nails are getting rather frayed!

I have been to the USA, New Zealand and Australia in the past 6 weeks, I am writing this from a hotel just outside of Geelong in Australia.

Here are some pictures taken just outside of Boston in the USA.





Here are some Pictures taken at the Australian Foundry Instutute annual trade show in Melbourne, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (what a venue) and some taken in Melbourne it's self.









Here is one taken from the Hotel i was staying in in Christchurch in New Zealand. Unfortunately I was unwell while in New Zealand so I was unable to do any exploring in either Christchurch or Auckland.



Are well back to my travels......

Next destination Tasmania.

The 'African' Continent

Last month was my first trip to South Africa in over a decade and things there have changed quite a bit since then, you could easily be mistaken into believing that you were in any city anywhere in the world. With the coming of the Football World Cup next year there is construction going on everywhere in preparation and the new football grounds they are building look world class (see picture of the one being built in Durban). Though from the experience I had while there Rugby is still the number one sport in South Africa and most of the people I met were obsessed by the sport (in the nicest of ways).

The customers that I went to see took extra time to show me the local country and some of the culture and I would like to thank them for their hospitality, it went above and beyond what was expected and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there.

This month I will be visiting North America and will post an update following my return.

Another Year Rolls On....

I’d like to be one of the first to welcome our newest employee Richard Raine to the Synchro family. Richy comes to us with both extensive foundry knowledge and general IT experience and quite a talent in the Crystal Report writing area of our business. From my point of view Richy is especially welcome as he will be helping to relieve my workload, hopefully allowing me to get home to my own bed once in a while.

I have no doubt that many of you have already had dealings with him and found him highly professional and very helpful. Richy has already been out on the road with me and visited customers both in the UK and the USA helping to broaden his knowledge of the foundry industry. I would like to extend thank you the customers we have visited and who have taken the time to give him a tour of your facilities.

On a personal note my baby daughter is no longer a baby and she has her Prom this Friday, a very frightening thought for a father seeing his baby taking her first steps into adulthood. I was however hoping, vainly as it turns out, to no longer be hearing those dreaded words “Dad can you just....” quite so often.

I write this sat in yet another Hotel, this time in the north east of the UK, my travel plans for the next 3 months do however take me to South Africa, USA and Australia so I will no doubt be seeing many more hotels in the immediate future.
I hope this note finds many of you at the end of the downturn or the start of the upturn.

I was about to begin this entry with it’s the start of another year but we are already 6 weeks into it and time is flying so fast I can not believe it. Everyone at Synchro is still very busy despite the economic slowdown which is effecting many of our customers, lets all hope that it will be short lived.

I can not believe that my baby (my daughter Emma, our youngest) will be 16 on Sunday it seems only days since we bought her back from the hospital as a 6 lb bundle of joy. OK I am really starting to feel old now, this is not helped when people (you know who you are) start saying things like we want someone with lots of experience. I am sure this is just polite speak for an old guy!

I am just back from my first visit to North America (mostly Canada on this trip) for 2009 where I saw more snow in 1 week that we have had in the UK in the last 5 years. We also do not get icicles in the UK either, see the pictures from my hotel in Canada below…




















I also have 2 more trips planned between now and the start of April to North America and 1 later in the year to Australia and I am sure there will be many more new installations from all the trade shows that we are attending this year.

Hopefully the first signs of people saying they are seeing signs of more orders coming in which I have been hearing lately, means that customers have now burned their stock castings and are now ordering for production. Lets all hope for an upturn in 2009.