Shop talk

Normally I'm up between 6am and 7am but about once a week I just can't sleep. As soon as I wake, my head's on and I'll be up writing. It drives my wife Liz mad. When I've got something big on, I still get anxious. I shouldn't after all these years, but it won't change now. As a teenager, I lived through the days of constant strikes and a suicidal motor industry dominated by the unions. Then it was the Three Day Week – 'Vote for Ted and four days in bed'. It had a profound effect on me. I'm not a Thatcher's child, but I just don't understand why people wouldn't want to put in a fair day's work. I've always worked. I delivered papers when I was 10, I kept hens, I worked in a grocer's shop, and had my own paper round at 16. I am never satisfied and I think that's down to my childhood. I'm one of four – the first male – in a strong evangelical Christian family and God always played the senior role at home. I don't take compliments easily even now because I am always trying to live up to pretty strict standards. It was church every Sunday and no football, and when I was 15 there was a set-to about it all. My dad backed us and after that family life was a bit more balanced. But I've always confronted issues. I went a bit wild in my 20s, drinking too much and playing too much football. I got married just before my 30th birthday. Liz already had two small children and it certainly made me more focused. She's been great for me. I've been in manufacturing more or less all my life – and only four jobs from two interviews. I started with Crown Paints, went to a subsidiary and then joined a filtration company eventually bought by Camfil. When I started, it was a shambles. I was supposed to be the accountant but I took over production and buying – everything the owners should have been doing. It was soul destroying but I had a young family so I got my head down. I even went out selling and did all the accountancy at weekends. One year I had six days off, including weekends. But I was a shareholder and a director within 14 months. We weren't making money when I joined, but we grew the business 27-30% in really difficult years with lousy cash flow and a factory straight out of Dickens. When Camfil came along, it was a no-brainer – an entrepreneurial, family business that thinks long term. They put me on a mini-MBA at a Swedish university and I spent time in the energy faculty. It totally changed me – now I'm at the forefront of energy saving in the business. I've moulded it to help us and our customers run green. Those early years made me. When you've no money, you've got to think of different ways of doing things. Deliver fast, put the cash in the bank – and that's 'lean'. Most of my team then are still with me today. We've moved factories three times and increased sales, profits and rewards every year. I see a culture out there in industry that just gives in to bad times and it makes me mad. We've made 14% growth this year through a can-do approach. Why can't they? My view is if the pond is still, it needs stirring up. Bill Wilkinson on life as UK MD of filtration pioneer Camfil Farr, Best Engineering Plant 2011 Best advice you ever received? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. There are some things you just have to get on and do – so do them first. They'll bite you in the backside if you don't. Advice you pass on? Work hard when you are young because you can't put in 60 hours when you are 60. What makes you angry? People who say it's not my job. Or someone who makes the same mistake twice. They aren't listening or they don't care. Either way, it's wrong. Food habits?Muesli for breakfast and lunch off a small plate. I'm at the age where I need to watch what goes in to leave room for a bit of beer. Unwinding?My family, my nine-year old grandson who's not a bad little footballer. Music – anything from Elvis to opera. And walking the dog.