New Corporate Partner MCP Consulting talks about its operations, the Queen's International Award for Trade, and the impact of COVID-19 on its business.
It’s been four years since MCP Consulting picked up its international trade award from the Queen in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
Since then, the group has expanded in several fields and strengthened its position as an asset management consultant and business improvement specialist.
Back in 2016, the opportunity came up to submit an application for the prestigious award, but to do so the company must meet the full, stringent criteria. To secure the nomination it had to prove significant export growth over the previous five years which, given its large scale of work overseas, it was able to do.
Then, it was just a matter of submitting the application and waiting for the assessment to be completed. CEO Peter Gagg believes that the award was well earned by the ‘hard work’ of the whole MCP team.
“And then you meet the Queen at the palace,” said Peter.
In 2019, Peter decided that a partnership with a leading PEI would be beneficial to take the business the next level.
He said: “I came across the Society when we were doing some work in the bus and coach sector. We took it further, and agreed that it looked impressive and interesting.
“I hope that by working together we can help operations engineers be better at what they do, from a manufacturing and maintenance point of view,” added Peter.
Since its formation in 1987, MCP has expanded into various fields, focusing on consultancy and management and technical training – it now operates on a worldwide basis, in blue chip organisations across industry sectors. Pharmaceutical, food and drink, automotive, airports, power and utilities, and transport are some of its primary
sectors, and it has now started working with companies training apprentices under the apprenticeship levy scheme.
“We have several standard courses. We train managers, supervisors, planners and engineers on the principles of best practice maintenance and asset management; our internal consultants develop those courses together with industry experienced consultants,” said Peter.
Headquartered in Solihull, it has expanded worldwide with partner companies in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Austria, China and UAE.
“On the technical training side, we help electricians and mechanics – and their supervisors – to be better at their jobs. Those courses are accredited by City & Guilds, and are put together by our technical trainers based on the requirements of industry,” added Peter.
Keeping the courses up-to-date with changing regulations is a challenge, said Peter, but with the help of SOE and other industry bodies, MCP is able to adapt its courses accordingly.
“You can keep on top of that by being aware of what the regulations are, so we can modify our courses to reflect those requirements. On the consultancy side, the principles of best practice don’t change too much over time. All of
the people we employ have come from industry, so they’ve all been through the same procedures and are aware when it needs to change,” said Peter.
“The Coronavirus has had a significant impact on our training business, but we expect to bounce back when the current problems are over.
“Fortunately some of our overseas clients are still working with us and we are continuing to provide proposals for assistance to our clients in the UK as well as overseas.
“In the interim we are developing and launching new services, including artificial intelligence machine learning and prescriptive maintenance solutions using the latest software and sensor technology,” concluded Peter.
To find out more about MCP Consulting, go to: mcpeurope.com
