COMPANY PROFILE
17recyclinginternational.com | July/August | 2022
office. I used to finish my work in the
yard and then come into the office
and type up letters. I found the fax
number and faxed people over several
years. I had no clue what I was doing,
not a clue. I hadn’t been exposed to
any international business.’
Eventually, he struck gold. The first
customer was an agent, MG India.
‘Sridhar, who now owns the business,
remains my longest, dearest friend in
India and has been for well over 20
years now. I’ve been invited to his
wedding and his children’s weddings.
He’s now a grandfather, as I am, and
it’s a really close relationship. Another
Fotobijschrift
David Dodds joined the family firm in 1978. ‘There’s nothing in the scrapyard I haven’t done.’
is Vishal, who was also at MG and now
has his own business. They are the
two people I trust the most in India.’
TRUST MATTERS
Dodds insists that trust and friendship
through long-standing relationships are
key, with money coming second. ‘Things
will always go wrong on occasions. There
will always be a deal that doesn’t quite
go right because of the quality or what-
ever, so it’s how you put it right. That’s
what marks you out as a brand.’
What would long-standing interna-
tional business friends say about
Sackers?
‘I hope they would say “trustworthy”,
a great brand that does what it says
on the tin. If there’s a market move
upwards, and that happens often, you
still have to deliver that even though
it’s under price. You have to do what
you say you are going to do. If not,
that brand will soon become diluted.
‘Our world marketplace is quite small.
Your name will quickly go around in
terms of reputation – good or bad.
We want to sell every bit of scrap we
do because of our brand.’
MARKETS FUTURE
Dodds sees the global market as terri-
locally. Scrap was going to the Far
East because of the cheaper labour
costs.
‘The choice for us was two-fold: look
for markets outside – there were plen-
ty – or go bigger. My father was quite
conservative, didn’t want to do too
much in risk, and had never done
business overseas. But I felt the big-
gest weapon we had in our armoury
was being 10 miles from Felixstowe,
which has the biggest port in the UK.
We were in the prime location.’
Sackers had taken on the second site,
and Dodds was sure the future was
abroad – but he knew very little about
the export market.
INTERNATIONAL EYE
‘I started going to trade shows, and I
was hearing, “We’re doing business in
India”, and, “We’re doing business in
SE Asia”, so I thought, “Right, we
wouldn’t mind a bit of that, but I have
no idea what it looks like or what you
are talking about. But I’m going to
find out”.’
He bought Metalworks of the World, a
Metal Bulletin directory, and browsed
the individual traders and agents, con-
centrating on India. ‘I was hearing
India is the place. The English lan-
guage helped – China was a no-no on
that score.
‘I still have that book here in the
16-17-18-19_sackersuk.indd 17 05-07-2022 13:38
