Meet The Directors
The top management personnel of FlowStore Systems Ltd, including founder Simon Dennis, have a wealth of experience in storage and materials handling industries and in the development and provision of products and applications for Lean Manufacturing.
They continue to apply Lean concepts into FlowStore’s business environment.
FlowStore Chairman Simon Dennis
Commencing a career in the storage and materials handling industry in 1977, Simon Dennis became a founder shareholder of FlowStore Systems Ltd in 1984. As managing director for most of its history, Simon also designed and sourced its main products.
As the company has moved into products and applications for Lean Manufacturing, he has recognised the strength of Lean philosophies in engaging the company’s own staff to play contributing roles.
Encouraging and rewarding initiative from all staff levels plays a significant part in job satisfaction, error reduction and overall efficiency.
Faced with the question of business succession for a privately-owned company, he was introduced to an Employee Ownership (EO) company in 2016 and began to investigate how EO might match his existing business philosophy.
FlowStore Systems completed its transition to EO status during the summer of 2017.
FlowStore Managing Director Austen Jonas
Managing director Austen Jonas has more than 20 years’ experience within global Lean Manufacturing industries.
He started at FlowStore in 2006 as production manager for the FlowTube product line and became a director of FlowStore Systems Ltd in 2013.
Since then, Austen has applied Lean concepts into the company’s business environment, which has helped provide a stable platform for continuous improvements, resulting in the reduction of process wastes (Muda).
Austen played a major role in the Employee Ownership route that FlowStore undertook.
He firmly believes that being an EO business has helped further strengthen what the company has already started regarding the important – and topical – issue of employee empowerment, while also providing the best option for the question of succession.
