9 minute read
Taking a hands-on approach to championing rail’s supply chain
Colin Flack OBE on continuing to champion rail’s supply chain and support the industry’s SMEs
Colin Flack OBE has now had several weeks to reflect on being the recipient of an award in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
These honours are never inevitable, but for someone who wears so many hats in the transport industry it was more a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ his sustained leadership, commitment to rail and his contribution to championing and supporting the UK’s rail supply chain would be recognised in such a high-profile manner.
Yet getting the advance warning that an OBE was heading his way was not as simple a process as one might expect. Given lockdown, the Cabinet Office had taken to notifying recipients via email back in April, and such is the unusual nature of the email address such official missives are sent from that most of these messages were filtered as spam. Colin received a follow-up call to stress the importance of reading the email, which is when the penny dropped.
Colin said: “I hadn’t seen it up to that point and then there it was. When I got the call a part of me thought, this better not be a wind up, then I looked at the screen and realised it was real. Getting the OBE still hasn’t sunk in and it was certainly not something I expected so it was a really humbling moment.
“Given my military background I’m pretty good at keeping secrets but this was a difficult one to keep to myself. Then when the announcement was made I had a wonderful reaction from people I know and some I don’t know at all who sent some lovely messages of support.”
Colin Flack
Simple outlook
Colin continued: “It is important to me that this honour can be used positively. I have a simple outlook on life and my career in both the military and business is founded on pretty basic principles, at the top of which is trust and loyalty. The OBE will help me to continue to do my work and gives people trust in what I can do.”
Following a career in the British Army, which started in 1978 and saw him serve in Northern Ireland, Hong Kong with the Gurkhas, the Gulf War, Kosovo and elsewhere in the world, and ultimately rise to the rank of Colonel, Colin then set up Quinton Rail Technology Centre (QRTC) with his wife, Ruth. QRTC is one of just four Testing Centres of Excellence in the UK and the largest specialist off-lease rolling stock storage site in the country.
QRTC is also the home of Rail Live, an event recognised as Europe’s largest outdoor railway show. Colin was responsible for transforming Rail Live into its current format, which benefits from a strong partnership with Bauer Media’s Rail Magazine and brings the entire rail industry together in a working railway environment.
Colin was also one of the key players in forming the Rail Supply Group, which is now working on delivering the Sector Deal. He was the founder of the West Midlands Rail Alliance via his work with the West Midlands Manufacturing Advisory Service, which subsequently evolved into the national and international body that is the Rail Alliance. In 2019, the Rail Alliance became a fully integrated part of University of Birmingham’s Birmingham Centre for Rail Research and Innovation, where it continues to support industry and academic rail activities.
Colin explained: “The Rail Alliance’s integration with the University will reap some really big, positive benefits in the future.
“The whole point about the Rail Alliance is that it came about to address the void that existed for the large percentage of companies that would not describe themselves as ‘rail’ businesses because they supported and supplied a whole variety of industries, and therefore the rail industry did not really support them.”
Catch-all for companies
Colin said: “There were a lot of businesses that didn’t feel loved. So our role was to fish deeper and more broadly and be a catch-all for those companies that wanted to get involved. That’s more in vogue now, of course, but we changed things. Now, there’s a new evolution, with the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network (UKRRIN), so we’re all working in a different space and the University will provide opportunities and routes in for companies to engage with rail.
“The railway industry is a difficult place to do business because it is, inevitably, dominated by some very large players so it’s not an easy place for the SME to work. Yet it’s that space that I find absolutely fascinating and working with the Rail Alliance, supported by a brilliant team, we made the inroads required because OEMs, Tier 1 contractors, ROSCOs, they’re not really set up to nurture the supply chain and frankly do not understand the world of the SME, despite their protestations otherwise. We’ve managed to work with those larger players to enable them to work effectively with SMEs, and to help them develop the moral courage to be honest and fair. Just having innovation days or supplier open days isn’t enough, it’s how SMEs can be pulled through and continue the business relationship.
“Honesty and openness are really important, actually giving people reasons why this work might be a difficult process because often, SMEs are hanging on for years. They’re thrown a hurdle, they overcome it, then they’re thrown another hurdle. In many ways my role is mentoring people and listening to them and to get common sense to prevail.
“The safety critical aspect of the industry allows rail to mire things down and slow progress, development and genuine innovation. But there’s an awful lot that isn’t safety critical and that’s the space SMEs can work in and innovate in.”
No such thing as the railway
Colin said: “You know, in the same way that Margaret Thatcher didn’t quite say there’s no such thing as society, there is arguably no such thing as the railway. The ‘railway’ is grouped together in a big lump, in a way that we don’t do with the automotive sector or aviation. That makes life difficult for the supply chain because it never quite knows who it is supposed to be addressing.”
For Motorail, another company owned by Colin and Ruth and led by Steve Dunmore, Ruth’s brother, which services and maintains 95 per cent of all the UK’s railway tank wagons, working through a global pandemic hasn’t proved to be an insurmountable hurdle, not least because the site is a large, open space.
For QRTC changes to working procedures and practices were modified in line with guidelines in 2020, while testing and trialling work has suffered some postponements and delays. Key partners supported at the site – notably manufacturer Vivarail and rolling stock service supplier Chrysalis – have been further helped in order to keep functioning at close to full capacity, with adaptations to shift patterns and production schedules.
Rail Live wasn’t so fortunate, cancelled as it was in 2020, although a comeback in June 2021 promises “a triumphant return” for the event. Colin said: “Everything is gently optimistic around the return of Rail Live in 2021. We have so much space at the site that we’ll be safe and it is all perfectly doable, it will just come down to whether the rules allow the event to take place.”
Sense of importance
Colin said: “From where we’re sat at the moment, though, by the time we get to early spring, with the flu and cold season behind us, and the combination of the brave new world of Brexit and companies getting back on their feet, Rail Live will be a great way to go charging into a new era. So there is a great sense of importance we’re feeling around the event, we’re going for it and feeling confident that we’ll get things sorted.”
While an OBE might serve as a good punctuation point to take stock of a career, Colin has no plans to change track. While he’s taken advantage of lockdown to indulge in his passion for carpentry and working with his hands – he is currently refurbishing a five bedroom house, making oak furniture to order and recently rebuilt the bar in a friend’s historic public house – there’s still plenty of work in rail to deliver.
Colin added: “We have a lot going on at QRTC and I’ll continue in the business development space helping and supporting others. Careers are a haphazard journey. My old dad, who is in his late 80s, has never been able to understand what it is that I do. I’ve always been entrepreneurial and that’s the arc of my career, to constantly be on the lookout for opportunities.
“I’ve lost none of my passion for rail, it is an interesting sector with good people and a great sense of national purpose.”
Congratulations to several workers in the railway industry who have seen their efforts recognised in the latest New Year’s Honours List.
Lee Hallam OBE, Chief Executive Officer and founder of Sheffield-based Linbrooke Services – for his inspirational industry leadership, philanthropy and tirelessly championing the disadvantaged.
Mark Hopwood CBE, Great Western Railway’s (GWR) Managing Director – for his services to the railways. This month he returned to GWR after he spent the year at South Western Railway as Interim Managing Director. He has held numerous roles in the railway since starting in the industry aged 17.
Martin Frobisher OBE, Network Rail’s Group Safety and Engineering Director – for his work supporting the railway response to the coronavirus, the construction of the Nightingale hospitals and supporting the army reserves.
Loraine Martins OBE, Network Rail’s Director of Diversity and Inclusion – for her work to improve diversity throughout Network Rail and her voluntary work with the National Mentoring Scheme.
Debbie Francis OBE, City Executive for the North at Arcadis – for her contribution to raising the profile of women in rail over the last decade. During her career in rail, the former Chair of Women in Rail North West has championed the promotion of diversity and inclusion.
Shane Andrews MBE, Network Rail’s Project Operations Interface Specialist, Wales – for his work improving inclusivity within the rail industry, particularly with the LGBT+ community, and for volunteering in various roles within his local community for more than a decade.
Sharon Sear and Mat Sullivan, both received BEMs – the London Underground staff have been recognised for their work to protect both colleagues and customers from the spread of coronavirus, with their actions helping those needing to make essential journeys.
Andy Savage MBE, Executive Director of the Railway Heritage Trust – honoured for his work supporting railway heritage and for more than 40 years of volunteering with the Ffestiniog Railway.
