A day in the life of... Mark Steeple

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF... MARK STEEPLE

General Manager of Gripple Automation, Mark Steeple has been with Gripple for over 13 years. Previously working in the business as a development engineer, overseeing external machine builders and improving current equipment, such experience inspired Mark with the belief that Gripple could build its own machines in-house, and Gripple Automation was born.

What does a typical day for you consist of?
Tough one! A typical day could be anything from performing a sales role, quoting on new projects, budget control, helping with design and concepts, managing relationships with existing customers, authorising projects, even helping with building the machines (although the engineers might argue I’m not much help sometimes!), the list is endless!!

What are you working on at the moment?
We have a big Gripple project on at the moment; we recently completed a project to automate the ‘blacking’ process for the Gripple Black Line range as well. There are lots of other potential projects in the pipeline too, so watch this space..!

What do you enjoy about working for Gripple Automation?
The team! They’re a bunch of people who will say things as they are - there’s no secrets and they’re all very honest - they sure keep me on my toes.

Do you have any personal or team achievements that stand out for you?
Seeing the team work together with no boundaries is a big thing for me – they question themselves and, each other. We’ve done a couple of good projects for Gripple recently too notably building the Angel Hanger machine, which was a great team effort.

What are your hopes for Gripple Automation’s attendance at Automechanika?
To showcase what we can offer both as Gripple Automation and GLIDE - a few potential new customers wouldn’t be bad either!

Where do you see the business in 5 years time?
I’d like Gripple Automation to be at least triple the size it is now; I’d like us to have our own unique building, a huge customer base who we’ll have worked with for a number of years, based on strong relationships and outstanding delivery, our own in-house manufacturing facility, lots of apprentices (who we turn in to engineers of the future), I could keep going on and on here!

Lastly, on a personal note, do you have any interesting facts you can share with us?
Hmmm… interesting or boring? I’m an astrophotographer (I take images of the night sky) which means I spend some nights under the stars. Incidentally, this has nothing to do with the fact I share my house with a wife, 2 girls, and two dogs!

Mark and the team at Gripple Automation will be exhibiting at Automechanika 2016, 7-9th June at Birmingham NEC, alongside the GLIDE group of businesses. Click here to register your attendance.