24th December 2004

Salisbury MP Robert Key meets with Mike Lloyd of local company ML Electronics to discuss their rapid growth over the past 12 months

Robert Key MP for Salisbury and Shadow Minister for Science meets with Mike Lloyd, Managing Director of Whiteparish based Company ML Electronics to learn the secret of their success over the past 12 months and discuss recruitment challenges facing local employers today.

Robert Key MP for Salisbury visited ML Electronics last Friday 17th December with a view to finding out just what it is that makes this small company such a local success story. Whilst meeting with Managing Director Mike Lloyd, Robert was able to see for himself examples of the good work that ML Electronics have been carrying out in the medical sector and discussed the challenges facing employers in the South Wiltshire region.

Originally based a in a small countryside barn Mike Lloyd and his wife Sharon started their company ML Electronics 10 years ago with a small government grant developing highly specialised electronics products. Over the past decade they have transformed ML Electronics into a profitable and successful company with an impressive portfolio of clients employing local people and operating out of a purpose-built complex on the outskirts of Salisbury.

The result of hard work and self-belief; ML Electronics is an example of a small local company with bright ideas and enthusiasm that has come good. In the past 12 months the company has continued to go from strength to strength taking on new clients and moving to new premises.

During his visit Mr Key took the opportunity to observe the groundbreaking results of MLE’s recent work in the medical field. After a number of successful projects in the medical field, MLE took a decision to focus their efforts in this area as their core skills in the areas of instrumentation, power supplies and user-friendly interfaces lend themselves well to this area.

A notable example of MLE’s success in this field is their recent involvement in developing a plasma blood coagulator; an innovation that enables wounds to be sealed instantly during both conventional and keyhole surgery; greatly reducing the risk in complex procedures. During his visit to MLE Robert Key took the opportunity to observe the PlasmaJet™ for himself. He was amazed to learn that the PlasmaJet can reach temperatures of 14,000◦C within seconds and that this groundbreaking project has already produced amazing results in clinical trials, with successful operations carried out on 60 patients, many of whom were able to leave hospital several days earlier than expected

Involvement with Plasma Surgical and other clients such as Ferrari, Honeywell and Texas Instruments has all helped to build MLE’s reputation within the industry as a leading developer of specialist electronics technology on both a national and international level.

An increased workload has meant that MLE have expanded their workforce considerably over the past couple of years taking on new staff to help them meet the demand for their highly specialised technologies and improving the range of expertise within the company.

As MLE expand and if they are to meet the projected demand for their specialist technologies they will need to have the manpower to support this. “We are a company determined to remain in the Salisbury area as we expand, so the challenge of finding the right people to join MLE is a real issue for us. Meeting with prominent community figures like Robert is great as it gives us an opportunity to work together to think of ways to overcome this and ensure that MLE remains a local company with roots in the local community.”

South Wiltshire has a high level of employment, which presents a challenge to employers looking for new recruits without having to go further afield. As a local MP this issue is of particular importance to Robert Key “It’s an exciting challenge to ensure that the prosperity and quality of life in South Wiltshire is maintained. As we have the lowest rate of unemployment in the UK it is essential that this remains so, and it is my belief that only science-based hi-tech companies such as MLE can ensure a bright future for employment.”

Mike knows that the key to MLE’s success is the company’s unique culture, which explains why they have been successful in recruiting quality staff that they have managed to retain. “It is really important that our staff look forward to coming to work and are proud of the company. Key to this is spending quality time together as a team and involving everyone in important discussions. I am certain that the success we have had so far at MLE is down to the team; we are a great bunch of people who love what we do and get on very well with one another.”

Robert Key was impressed to hear about Mike’s record for staff retention as in today’s fast-moving world this is becoming a rarity and as MLE continue to expand this will be important in ensuring their continuing success. “A decade of success in cutting-edge electronics development means ML Electronics is poised for expansion. Mike’s team at MLE is stable, experienced and highly innovative. They are the very best of British.”

[ENDS]

Editor’s Notes: ML Electronics is an innovative company specialising in electronic product development and manufacture for the medical, industrial, HVAC, audio and general commercial industries. They have a wide range of design experience including embedded systems, DSP, power technology, motor drives, instrumentation, industrial control, communications and software.

Contact: Peter Stanforth Marketing Executive 0870 835 8416

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