TWO mayors came together to mark a milestone achievement of a unique, flourishing business.

Able Systems Limited on Denton Drive Trading Estate is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

Knutsford mayor Cllr Mike Houghton, the company’s chief commercial officer, invited Northwich mayor Cllr Graham Emmett to meet the innovative team who now own the firm.

The business designs and manufactures mini-printers that are exported all over the world.

Mike joined the company as marketing manager six years ago and led a successful employee buy-out in February 2020.

“The owner of the business wanted to sell it to a competitor and that could have put us all out of a job," said Mike

“Me and a few other people suggested an employee buy-out just before lockdown. It was a very collaborative effort.

“Everyone has a vested interest directly.”

Now, no dividends are paid to shareholders. All profits are reinvested or shared between the current 28 employees as bonuses.

“It’s a bit like John Lewis on a smaller scale,” said Mike.

“It was a great company to work for before but it has been transformed.

“It’s such a team effort now.

“We have tremendous loyalty, nobody has left since we did this.

“We are an employee owned company and our ongoing success is testament to the hard work and personal commitment every member of the Able team delivers every day.”

The firm makes compact printers for vehicles, homes and businesses.

Portable printers can be designed for use ‘on the go’.

“We supply half the UK’s police officers with printers which they wear on their belts,” said Mike.

“They can issue fixed penalty tickets or anti social behavioural orders immediately to people through the app on their smart phones.”

Haulage trucks use mini-printers to measure temperature and weights of loads and taxis to adopt them to issue receipts.

The company also manufactures mechanisms for bank cash machines and kiosks.

Mike said: “Interestingly, 70 per cent of our business is exported around the world to New Zealand, Africa, Europe and America.

“Brexit was a particularly challenging time for us but we are getting there.

“We compete with massive multi national companies like Brother, Honeywell and Zebra.

“People like to deal with us because we are small and attentive.

“We do a lot of bespoke work.

"The key thing is that if someone wants something unique, because of the agility of our design, we can easily adapt because we haven’t got huge processes to change.

"It's no mean feat these days to maintain a successful business and over the last few years we have faced, and still face, many challenges.

"We invited Cllr Emmett to help us celebrate this special anniversary as the perfect way to really mark the occasion.

"And then we all went out to lunch."