Celebrating three decades in the highways sector is no small feat, and Ian Thomas, Business Development Manager at Rennicks, has reached this significant milestone with dedication and passion. With a career that spans various roles and challenges, Ian’s journey is a testament to his commitment to the industry. As someone who has grown alongside the sector, Ian has witnessed and contributed to its transformation, making him a respected figure in the field.
To mark this occasion, Susanne Ingham, LCRIG’s Relationship Director, who will also celebrate 30 years in the sector in April, suggested catching up with Ian to reflect on his career, inspirations, and the highlights of his journey. True to form, Ian took us on a journey through his memories, sharing his experiences with the same good humour and enthusiasm that he brings to everything he does.
Read Ian’s full interview below.
Q. What initially attracted you to the highways sector?
A. Like all good things, my move into Highways was a bit of an accident! In the mid-1990s, I was looking to get married and buy a house, but the UK had just undergone a massive recession. I hadn’t had a pay rise for four years, and there was absolutely no chance I’d get on the property ladder earning £11k per annum. I spotted a very small advert in the Jobs Section of the Express & Star newspaper for a Production Supervisor. I had done production engineering during my HNC, so I thought, “I can do this.” After a couple of interviews, I got the job at Signfix in Tipton, West Midlands.
Q. Can you walk us through your career journey? Where did you start, and how did you progress to your current role?
A. I’m actually a Mechanical Design Engineer by trade, having served my apprenticeship with a fantastic company called Bronx Engineering, which manufactured heavy-duty equipment for the steel industry. I was fortunate to learn from some of the finest engineers that I’ve ever had the good fortune to meet, both on the factory floor, where I learned to operate machining equipment and how to fit all the various parts together, and later, I moved into the design office where pretty much everything we did was done in the old fashioned way, by hand on drafting boards. This hands-on experience in both the practical and design aspects of engineering laid a solid foundation for my career.
In 1994, I joined Signfix as a Production Supervisor, which was an almighty culture shock. I went from working in a posh, brand new office complex to managing a team of 20 lads in a factory – something I hadn’t done before. It was scary at first, having left the comfort of Bronx where someone was always mentoring me. Suddenly, I was running the whole manufacturing department. Eight months in, I experienced my first “Mad March” and realised just how frantic life could be in this industry.
Then came the lottery win. Four of my lads on the coating plant won £11m on the lottery in 1995, and I suddenly found myself running the PVC Coating Plant. A few months later, we lost our Quality Control Manager, and I ended up running the QC department for a couple of years. In the mid 1990’s, my career took another turn when we signed an agreement with a Norwegian company, Juralco, to look after their interests in the UK selling “Crissy-Crossy” signposts – unknown to me at the time, this product (Lattix) was to become a very important part of my working life. In the early 2000’s, Lattix started to really move in the UK and the brand new concept of Passive Safety was born.
We had an MBO in 2003 and by now, I was in my mid 30’s with career progression right at the heart of what I wanted to achieve in life. With limited opportunity at the time for advancement, I got talking to Astucia based in Kent, the inventors of the intelligent road stud. I got offered a position as their sole representative on the road, covering the UK & Ireland with this really innovative product – this is where I truly learned about the importance of the customer.
I really enjoyed my time at Astucia and met some wonderful people along the way, including those from Local Authorities, Highways Agency, the MACs, Contractors, Consultant Engineers, and also Brian Lyus at DfT who was extremely inspirational with such an encyclopaedic knowledge of traffic signs and lining. But when my personal life required me to be closer to home, I met with Peter Moore and Alan Nicholas at SignPost Solutions (formerly Signfix) and returned to SignPost Solutions in 2007. The years that followed were incredibly busy and successful, especially with the rise of Passive Safety in the UK.
Then came the Financial Crash of 2008, which didn’t impact us immediately – road schemes, once started, are hard to stop. About 12 months later, one of our reps left, so my colleague Tim Daly and I split his area between us while also managing all the Passive products in our portfolio. I still believe I got the better deal, looking after the area from Berkshire right through to Cornwall and up to the M4 corridor – a wonderful part of the country with absolutely smashing people!
In 2012/13, I took on the challenge of bringing a couple of new products to market, namely Optimast and ReJuven8. I handled all the project management, testing, and university accreditation required, while still managing my area. I continued in this role until 2013 when I sought a new challenge and joined Meteogroup, Europe’s largest private provider of weather information. My role at Meteogroup involved managing a few highway customers and overseeing the retail sector. However, I quickly realised how much I missed working day-to-day with the people in the highways industry. After just six months, I decided to return to the sector.
I was extremely fortunate to connect with Traffic Management Products (TMP), where I spent five great years working closely with customers and bringing new products to market. Some of the projects we undertook, like real-world crash testing of bollards, were genuinely exciting.
During my time at TMP, I started getting involved with trade associations and contributing to the writing of industry standards. This work culminated in me taking on the Chairman’s role with BSi for Breakaway (Passive) Safety, a role I still hold today. I take great pride in this role, as it allows me to give back to a sector that I’ve loved working in for most of my life.
In 2019, after just turning 50, I got itchy feet and was extremely fortunate to join Rennicks as Business Development Manager. It’s a brilliant company that has allowed me to continue contributing to standards and stay actively involved in the highways sector, while also focusing on the sales of vehicle conspicuity and ITS products. Rennicks has been a fantastic place to continue my career, and I am eternally grateful for the personal support they’ve provided.
Q. Given your long tenure in the sector, have you maintained relationships with clients who have also grown in their careers?
A. I’m going to get in trouble here because I have so many friends going back nearly 30 years! My longest-term client relationships include Shaun Stacey (now MD at Mason Street Furniture), Chris Williams (MD at Signway), Ian Owen (ITS Technology Principal at Mott MacDonald), and Mike Duggan (National Highways), among many other wonderful people. Shaun was an installer on London resigning when I first met him, Chris was manufacturing traffic signs, Ian was running round with bits of wire and a handful of LEDs at Astucia, and Mike was the lead signage engineer at Enterprise Mouchel in Area 3. It’s been incredible to see how we’ve all grown in our careers over the years.
Q. Reflecting on your career, what advice would you have given your younger self about the future in this sector, knowing what you know now?
A. While I’m a mechanical engineer by trade, I wish I’d learned a lot more about the electrical/electronic elements to highways. I have a working knowledge of what some of the “techie” products do, but I don’t have an in-depth understanding of how they actually work.
Q. What advice would you offer to someone who is just starting out in the highways industry?
A.
a) Listen and ask lots of questions of people who have been doing it for years.
b) Absorb as much information as possible from a wide variety of sources.
c) Visit as many factories as you possibly can to see exactly how things are put together and why.
d) Spend time on-site with installers of as many disciplines as possible. You’ll learn invaluable information that will make your life much easier in the future.
e) If it looks wrong, it probably is wrong.
f) The computer is definitely never always right.
g) Don’t be afraid to ask any question – there’s no such thing as a wrong question.
h) Build a trusted network of people you can bounce ideas off who will tell it like it is, good, bad, or indifferent.
i) Enjoy every single minute of your time in highways – it passes by extremely quickly.
Q. Who has been the most influential figure or biggest inspiration to you in this sector, and why?
A. This is going to sound corny, but everyone I’ve met in highways has left a lasting impression on me. I genuinely love to hear how people got to where they are in this sector; there are often some really interesting backstories. Susanne Ingham, who I’ve known for 20 years, has always really impressed me, not just for her achievements, but for her dedication and kindness.
If I had to pick the most inspirational person, it would be Kim Heglund, formerly of Juralco in Norway. Not only did he contribute to making roads safer in Scandinavia, he’s also contributed to the advancement of Passive Safety in the UK, Europe, and even in places as far-flung as Australia.
Q. Finally, looking back over the years, what are the three main highlights of your career in the highways sector?
A.
- The acceptance and adoption of Passive Safety in the UK, a concept that has proven to save lives time and time again when a vehicle has lost control and struck an inanimate piece of street furniture.
- ReJuven8 – I designed and developed this product with Howard Jones at Kier in Area 1. I’m extremely proud that it won the CIHT award for innovation in 2013.
- Dudley Gantries – We supplied all the signposts for the Dudley Bypass in 1998/9, but there was a slight technical challenge; two of the ADS signs were to be positioned exactly where the Midland Metro tramway was planned to run. To solve this, I came up with the idea of using Lattix to go up and over the road. These gantries were installed on 1st September 1999! Nine months later, we received a call from Ian Beck at the Highways Agency in London: “Those little gantries in Dudley have provoked an idea; we want to place these types of structures every 500m or so along the motorway with electronic signs to control the speed of vehicles ….”. My little gantries became the inspiration for the original concept of managed motorways…