At the end of 1999, toiletries manufacturer COSi was wallowing in £12 million debt.

The company had been on the acquisition trail for eight years and had just taken over Body Shop International's vast production site in Littlehampton, West Sussex.

Darren Woolgar - who had been a team leader on the factory floor at Body Shop - decided it was a good time to see the world. He didn't return for two years.

It was "a dream fulfilled" but when he got back in mid-2001 he was broke. He decided to visit outsourcing company COSi.

Most of COSi's work - 85 per cent - is for Body Shop International but the company also makes goods for Procter and Gamble, Unilever and Molton Brown.

Darren wanted to see old friends and see if there was any work going. He was in luck and got a job as a machine operator.

It meant starting from scratch again, but Darren soon progressed from team leader to supervisor, senior supervisor and finally, in 2004, production manager (manufacturing).

The last five years have been a huge learning curve for Darren - not least because the company has undergone a major restructuring which has involved significant redundancies.

In November 2001, COSi, which began in 1992 as a South African company, was the subject of a £47 million management buyout led by founder and managing director Michael ten Hope.

By this stage the company's headquarters had moved to Littlehampton. In 2002, lean manufacturing expert Bob Tolan became chief executive. He built up a top executive team to knock the unwieldy business into shape.

The results have been remarkable. In the first three years the company broke even.

Last year it made a small profit and was named Sussex Manufacturer of the Year at the Sussex Business Award.

Darren does not pretend it has been easy.

He said: "We have made a lot of changes and with that comes a lot of resistance. There was an old school from the Body Shop days who thought everything was 'better back then'.

"But the truth is we made the changes because we had to. Bobby completely changed the place. He was very hands-on, always on the factory floor, and people weren't used to that.

"His way of doing things is something I have tried to copy. If there's a problem on the factory floor, people have no qualms about coming to me. My door's always open."

Tolan introduced the concepts of lean manufacturing and CANDO. This stands for clean-up, arranging, neatness, discipline and ongoing. It might sound like toe-curling corporate speak but the results are impressive.

The factory floor at COSi runs like clockwork and is immaculately tidy. I half expect the Oompah Loompahs from Charlie And The Chocolate Factory to step out, marching in unison.

Waste is a dirty word here, not just in terms of the product but in regard to all movement.

Boxes are painted on the floor in yellow paint. Everything has its place.

Neat charts on the wall - called balance score cards - spell out this month's targets while books detailing company procedures for all the tasks are in a perspex box.

A sign hanging from the ceiling trumpets COSi's vision to be the "best provider of outsourcing services in the health and beauty markets" above rows of brightly coloured bottles containing exotic goo.

Darren said: "Five years ago whenever we knew someone was coming, we had to rush around making the place look respectable but now it always looks ship-shape."

The last five years has also seen COSi invest heavily in staff training. Five per cent of every worker's time is devoted to learning new skills. It's brave, but appears to be paying off.

Darren says: "Five per cent is an awful lot in terms of productivity, but if you are going to move forward you need the best people working for you."

The prospects are looking good and Darren is enjoying his job. He loves manual work but his brain is nimble enough to handle the paperwork.

He says: "There's a lot more responsibility and a lot more stress. When you've got a £1.5 million budget to spend and 35 people reporting to you, it's quite a challenge - but I like a challenge."

Wednesday, February 15, 2006