The family business tradition also continues with Ralph’s daughter, Nicola ‘Nikki’ Godfrey serving as commercial director with purchasing, warehousing and dispatch among her responsibilities and Phil Medora who is the sales director. Both have been with the company for over 15 years. But the family metaphor doesn’t stop there.
“Meeting challenges and taking care of customers is the best part of my job,” Nikki says, “and it happens because everyone on the team pulls together. It really is like a big family here in Wales and at our offices around the world. Everybody gets on well to achieve the common goal and we work hard to create an environment where that is possible.”
Today, much of Mayphil’s business is focused on electric power generation (EP) using Perkins-powered generator sets. These range from 10 to 50 mW installations for mains power to smaller systems powering individual banks and telecom sites.
“We have supplied and now support more than 450 banking sites and 15,000 telecom sites in Pakistan with Perkins-powered generator sets,” Ralph noted. “And our large OEM customers in Lebanon ship Perkins-powered generator sets to many of their customers in Africa and south Asia where the Perkins brand has an excellent reputation for performance and value.
“We have been servicing relationships in some markets for more than 40 years, meeting unique challenges and taking care of customers. In many ways that experience is a reflection on the relationship Mayphil has enjoyed with Perkins. Both are built on trust, mutual respect and doing what you say you will no matter how difficult.”
Mayphil’s business in Afghanistan is a good example of the challenges involved in servicing Perkins engines in a difficult environment.
“We quickly learned to include every possible bolt and nut in the overhaul service kits we put together,” Ralph noted. “Sometimes we even took a complete head along just in case. Everything was loaded on a helicopter and flown to the location. And, because many of the service calls were for generator sets, our technicians had to become proficient working on electricals in addition to diesels.”
Not all of Mayphil’s memorable service calls are that dangerous, but they can be every bit as difficult. Nikki recalls the time a large generator set failed in Mongolia, near the Chinese border.
“We flew our service manager to Mongolia where he landed in the capital. But, the generator set was located nearly 900 kilometres away and the only way to get there was overland. Really overland, because there were no roads at all and six feet of snow in some places. Fortunately he went fully prepared because it took six full days to complete the overhaul and any extra parts that may have been needed were at least a four day round trip away.”
Not every service call is that challenging, though. Mayphil also services Perkins powered generator sets used by hotels in the Maldives which can be a very relaxing environment when the workday is finished.
Mayphil has more than 100 direct employees and more than 2,000 partners and contractors around the world, making communications a challenge.
“We do business in seven different time zones and need to have fluent speakers of Turkish, French, Russian and other languages available here in Wales at all sorts of odd hours,” Ralph says. “We also have learned that the name, Mayphil means restaurant or meeting place in some Arabic languages which can lead to some odd conversations.”
Mayphil also has to deal with a whole range of shipping-related issues.
“Often the time a container is in transit can be three months or more,” Nikki noted, “that is if they aren’t lost or hijacked at sea or at the destination port. It makes my job interesting, but our main priority is to serve our customers and maintain relationships.”
On the positive side, however, Ralph and Nikki both say that Perkins reputation for quality engines and outstanding distributor support is a major factor in Mayphil’s continuing success.
“Perkins is a premium brand with an excellent reputation in all of our markets,” Nikki said. “While some of our competitors may produce good engines, few deliver the kind of support Perkins and Mayphil is known for and that makes a huge difference.”