Brendan Donnelly - Manufacturing on the side of a mountain

Nottingham Business School Business Leaders

Nottingham Business School’s Business Leaders’ Podcast. Episode 39.

Brendan Donnelly: Manufacturing on the side of a mountain – small business leadership in a remote corner of England.

Introduction

• Brendan Donnelly and his wife Cherry own the Coniston Stonecraft slate-carving company, based in Victorian workshops, in the foothills of Coniston Old Man.
• The mountain stretches 2,600ft above them. They look down on Cumbria’s Coniston Water, where Donald Campbell crashed his Bluebird at 300mph, trying to break the world speed record in 1964.
• Brendan and Cherry bought Coniston Stonecraft out of administration in February 2020 – just weeks before Britain’s first Covid lockdown.
• The company’s staff craft slate signs, door numbers, rolling pins, clocks, wine coolers and other kitchenware for retail and private customers all over Britain. They also collaborate with other Cumbrian heritage craftsmen and women to make bespoke art pieces.
• Coniston Stonecraft was founded in 1976 and uses only Cumbrian slate or stone – including Westmorland Green and Brathay Blue-Grey – quarried on fells around the Lake District.

Key takeaways

• On running a manufacturing business on the side of a mountain…

Brendan said: “It’s incredibly difficult up here [on Coniston Old Man]. Not least because there are no roads. We drive our slate up and down a track.”

• On turning locally-quarried Cumbrian slate into high-quality kitchenware…

Brendan said: “The courier comes to the bottom of the hill… picks them [our pieces] up and takes them off to London. Our rolling pins sell very well in Fortnum and Masons!”

• On the difficulties, for small businesses, of dealing with Covid…

Brendan said: “Nowhere in my business plan did I write, Close for four months due to worldwide pandemic – and almost go bankrupt!”

• On the importance of leaders being able to sell…

Brendan said: “If you’re in business, you need sales. If you have a factory... and it's not producing anything, you’ll soon go out of business.”

• On why good planning is at the heart of any successful business…

Brendan said: “We know, to the final pound, how much we should be producing every week.”

• On running a traditional English craft manufacturer…

Brendan said: “We’re one of the last five or six slate masons in England. This business, this way of life, is too important for me to allow it to vanish.”

• On cheap Chinese imports with a carbon footprint 14 times that of Cumbrian slate…

Brendan said: “It’s very, very difficult to compete. We all want to reduce our carbon footprint. Let’s start by buying products made of slate from English quarries.”

• On advice for leaders running small businesses…

Brendan said: “Every day, go an extra inch, not an extra mile. Make sure you’re better than everyone else. But remember, you only need to win the race by a nose!”

Related links

• There are more details about Brendan Donnelly, here.

• Details of Brendan's book, Slow Selling, are here.

• The website of his Coniston Stonecraft company is here.