He has helped Ideal Standard win projects like Wembley Stadium and some of the biggest healthcare schemes ever. Now in his 35th year with the business, Non-Residential Channel Director Tim Chappell tells us about his career.
How did you start working for Ideal Standard?
In 1985, I started at sixth form for about six months and realised I couldn’t put up with that so I wrote three letters; to Armitage Shanks, Thorn EMI and the power station, which were the big employers at the time. Armitage was the only one to reply and I started the following week, earning £27.30 a week on the Youth Training Scheme (YTS).
I remember my first day I walked into the sales office and sat next to a guy called Gary Morgan. I remember getting my 10 Embassy Number 1 out and sparking up in the office. I can just imagine him thinking “What have we got here?”
On the YTS, you used to go round all the departments to learn about the business. I asked to go into the factory and worked for the mould makers, helping, lifting and carrying.
I did that for quite a while and ended up getting a permanent job back in the sales office. The sales manager at the time needed an opening batsman for the works cricket team and that was where I played in the order so that might have helped.
I was progress administrator to begin with, then I was on the phones, speaking to customers as part of the Midlands sales section. Noel Talbot, who only recently retired, was the external sales guy and we also had the current UK MDs of Duravit and Geberit in the team at the time.
In 1994, I left to run a business called Express Radiators as the general manager, which is why I moved to Bristol. Three years later they stopped doing sanitaryware so I came back to Armitage Shanks as a specification manager.
I did that for a few years and then in 1999 Ideal Standard acquired Armitage Shanks. In 2001 I became contract sales manager, running London and the south of England, and in 2007 I took over the national role for non-residential.
What are some of the highlights of your career with the business?
I’ve been lucky to work with some fantastic people over the years whether in the factory, internally or out on the road. It’s very much a team game. I have been fortunate enough to be involved in winning work in Italy, Abu Dhabi, and the Caribbean, and I’ve also been involved for three or four years in our business in Australia.
I’ve been involved in lots of different types of work. I’ve been directly involved in winning Wembley Stadium, what is now the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, and working with the team to win the supply on the 2012 Olympic site which was probably the biggest order I was involved in. I’ve also been involved in many hospitals, including the biggest private finance initiative hospital ever, St Bart’s in London. I suppose it’s been a varied career and opportunity has always been around the corner.
What advice would you have for anyone early in their career?
If I go back to my first day, nobody ever said to me in the next 15 years you are going to be working on major projects or assisting the government to update their guidance. I would have said no chance.
Just have a little patience. Careers aren’t built overnight. They take time to develop so it’s a good idea to look for opportunities to add to your skills, however they come about and however small they may seem at the time because they can make all the difference in the long run.
Take the time to learn as much as you can. It’s really important to make the effort and take the time to learn about the business, the products, what we do and why we do it. This then gives you a good grounding to see where you can add value to the business, whether that’s in your current role or in the future. Of course, it’s essential to keep learning every day.
However, the best bit of advice is to know you are part of a strong team. Learn from everyone around you and help them do the same. It’s not complicated.
What we do matters. If you said to me when I was getting a lift to work aged 17 as a passenger on a Kawasaki 1000 at 7.30 in the morning that I would be doing all this, I wouldn’t have believed you. I was too busy worrying if I would get to Armitage alive!
Tim is pictured at the top at our 2023 Commercial Conference.
The middle photo shows current employees Andy Warrington (back row, third from right), Tim (back row, second from right) and Liam Ansell (front row, second from left).
The bottom photo shows Liam (far left), Tim (second from right) and Bob Baseley (far right).