Berkshire: Xtrac's Peter Digby wins top IoD award
Peter Digby, managing director of the UK-based transmission technology specialist Xtrac, has been named ‘Global Director of the Year’ and overall winner of the influential Director of the Year Award presented by the UK Institute of Directors (IoD). The company he’s helped to grow, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next year, is headquartered in the UK with a hi-tech factory in Berkshire and additional facilities in Indianapolis and at Mooresville in North Carolina.
IoD director general Simon Walker said: “These awards recognise not just the tremendous success of Xtrac, but also the leadership and business skills that Peter has brought to bear. He is a truly worthy winner and we shall watch the continued success of Xtrac with great interest.”
Digby was presented with two of the IoD’s most prestigious awards in recognition of his outstanding leadership of an ‘exemplary motorsport and automotive business’ with 275 employees, and for the consistently high level of export sales this ‘UK Manufacturer of the Year’ has sustained since its formation 30 years ago. To win the IoD ‘Global Director of the Year’ award, not only must the enterprise be successful in exporting, but also committed to continued growth in the international business arena.
Xtrac’s largest markets are Germany, France, Italy and the US. More recently, South America and Asia have become increasingly important growth areas. The ‘Global Director’ award recognises directors of UK-based companies with overseas operations where a minimum of 25% of the company’s recent turnover comes from worldwide sales – in the case of Xtrac it consistently achieves 70% export sales.
The IoD awards cover nine different categories and the winners of each category are all considered for the overall 'Director of the Year' award. This top award is for the director who has shown outstanding leadership in the face of either difficult internal issues or tough market conditions, and who is able to point to outstanding achievements in their business during the course of the previous 12 months.
The IoD judges said Digby was a consistently outstanding managing director who has delivered the company’s most successful financial year to date with a continually expanding order book, and clearly deserved the accolade that comes with these awards, which were presented at the Grange Hotel in London on October 11.
“I am absolutely delighted,” said Digby. “This highly-valued award means a great deal to my fellow directors, managers, every employee in our company and to me personally. To have been recognised as the 'Global Director of the Year' was fantastic, but to receive the overall 'Director of the Year' award is simply amazing and I have to thank everyone at Xtrac for their hard work and support for everything that we have achieved together.”
Peter Digby trained as an engineer with British Airways before joining the Williams Formula One team when he was 21. He left as production manager after six years having obtained a masters degree, and following a brief spell with the Team Haas Formula One team, joined Xtrac in 1986 – just two years after it had been established by Mike Endean.
Under his leadership, Xtrac grew rapidly and in 1997 Digby led an unusual management buyout in the sense that it included all employees, who still make up 100% of the shareholders. Xtrac is now the world’s most successful motorsport transmission company with a turnover of £40 million – having achieved its best annual sales ever.
One of the critical assessments made by the IoD was determining the systems Xtrac has in place to ensure on-going professional development of its entire staff – including the company’s apprenticeship training programme.
