Frank Dudley
Founder
Frank started his business from the family garden shed. Using his experience in the toolmaking industry, he and members of his family worked hard to build a business dedicated to quality, customer satisfaction and building a better future for all involved. Frank is sadly no longer with us in body, but he is still very much with us in spirit. Without Frank's pioneering attitude, respect and appreciation for employees and customers alike, we would not be where we are today. His philosophy lives on, and is part of everything we do, from fulfilling customer needs to developing our teams and delivering the highest standard of quality.
Jill Dudley-Toole
Chairwoman
Jill has been with Frank Dudley Limited for over 60 years, and first started working on the hand presses, producing washers in their thousands, and making peg springs after school. At the tender age of 15, she worked as an apprentice at British Steel Springs, and was soon promoted to office manager. As if the working day wasn’t enough, Jill also attended night school, learning shorthand, typing and accountancy. She has held many varied roles within the company, including managing shipping, storage and customer orders, director of production and managing director. In this role, she took a real hands-on approach, running material orders and planning machinery. Jill’s philosophy is that workers should be the number one customer, be treated with full respect and that family should be first in and last out of the workplace every day.
Grant Dudley-Toole
Managing Director
Grant, our esteemed managing director, has been with the company for over 18 years and joined us at the age of 34. Prior to joining us, Grant held a number of roles within the engineering and waste sectors and brought valuable skills and experience to our door. His first role at FDL was as sales and marketing manager, a role in which he quickly established the current business and took us from earning a turnover of £2m to £8-10m in just seven years. Grant joined Frank Dudley Limited on the advice of his mother and in his own words, this was the best career move he ever made. His philosophy is one that is shared and adopted by the entire workforce and that is to create a profit generating business, to support growth and investment and to continuously improve employee wellbeing. Adopting and instilling these values across the company will ensure this family business continues to go from strength to strength over many generations to come.
Warren Dudley-Toole
Purchasing Manager
Warren, our purchasing manager, has been with the company for over 15 years and started working with us when he was still at school, producing thousands of washers on the hand presses. He then took an apprenticeship in the tool room at Newman Tonks before taking off to explore the world. Warren, in his role as production manager with us, played a key role in leading our press and weld teams through the integration from our site on Western Road to new premises at Wiggin Street. It was here that he took over the logistics department, a role that would give him a lot of valuable experience and knowledge for his current role. Warren’s philosophy is that it will “be alright on the night” and that if we follow our procedures and lead as managers, the whole company will be successful in their personal and work related goals.
Josh Dudley-Toole
Business Development Manager
Josh, our business development manager, has been with us for over five years now and first started work with us when he was just 11, cleaning our trucks on a Saturday morning. He also earned a little pocket money cutting protective plastic for one of our parts - something Josh described as "the worst job ever!” Before working in a business development role, Josh was responsible for five key accounts, and the generation of new business in a range of diverse markets. He also held the role of production manager, helping to ensure that every quality part was delivered right first time, every time. Josh believes strongly in team development and his experience of teaching around the world has helped him to recognise how to get the best out of people.
Elliot Dudley-Toole
Accounts Manager
Elliot has been with the company for over five years, starting with us at the age of 17 in our goods inwards section. Here he learned all about the goods inwards process, ensuring that all deliveries were in line with the company’s high quality standards. Elliot’s next role within the company was in the accounts department where he was responsible for the management and reconciliation of all purchase invoices. He has recently completed his AAT qualification, and hopes to progress to studying CIMA in order to further expand his knowledge and personal development. His vision for the future is to become the company financial director and to help the business to become bigger, better and more successful. Elliot believes strongly in the company’s solid family values and the emotional connection these values help to instil across the workforce. This connection and his drive to better himself, are qualities that will help to keep the family business going strong for many years to come.