Three Generations Of Manufacturing Excellence

Established in 1962 by George Goodfellow, Minnitron is a resounding British success story.

From its beginnings in what was quite literally a garden shed, the company has grown into one of the country’s leading PCB manufacturers, offering a design, assembly and prototyping service, with a global customer base and an unbeatable reputation for reliability and professionalism.

As a family run business, they have maintained their core values of hard work, high standards and honesty, despite the company’s ever-increasing size. This ethos has helped the business survive and flourish, even through times of economic instability.

Based in Ramsgate, Kent, they now employ a workforce of around 20 skilled staff.

Having a fully equipped PCB manufacturing plant in the UK enables us to deal with all types of customer requirements and provide a prompt, reliable service at all times.

The business began back in 1962 when George set up the business in his garden shed in Minnis Bay in Kent and with his natural skills as an engineer, he soon gained a reputation for being the ‘go to’ person which led to the formation of the business which is still going strong today.

Today, Minnitron is run by George’s Grandson, Paul Goodfellow and his wife Kirsty, who continue to drive the business forward. As Paul explains, “Grandad had an electrical shop in Birchington that sold TV’s and radios and he had a good knowledge of electrics too. He was a keen inventor and as a hobby liked to race small remote controlled boats and planes. They would often get damaged and were expensive to repair so he built his own machine that could print the miniature PCBs that helped them run again. News soon travelled and soon he was in demand to repair other broken boats and planes too!”

“At the same time, my Dad worked for a company that made circuit boards and he was able to share the knowledge with my Grandad and that led to building boards,” he continues.

“The business grew quickly for George and Dad soon joined the business. He had the right skills to help grow the business and their reputation as a quality manufacturer grew too. During the 1980’s there was widespread growth across the UK manufacturing sector and Minnitron was well placed to take full advantage of the opportunity, investing in innovative, sate-of-the-art technology,” continues Paul.

It was at this time that Paul joined the family firm, having grown up working in the business and he soon started to add his stamp as the business grew further. “I got involved creating internal systems and helped to further professionalise the business with the structures and procedures we needed as a business to compete with overseas suppliers,” continued Paul. “It helped us develop an edge over the competition and to deliver products quickly, something that we continue to do to this day, as we have an excellent reputation for delivering on time,” he adds.

This is a family business that has strong family values at their core, something that has been of real benefit to the business over the years. “We have always had good staff retention and some of our staff have been with us for many years. One of our longest serving employees has just completed 48 years of service,” continues Paul.

As a family business that is now well into the third generation, staff loyalty and service is one of the main reasons the business has stayed the test of time. As Paul continues, “The other factor that has contributed to our longevity is undoubtedly our adaptability and investment over the years. We have built a strong business, supporting local businesses and local people with employment and invested to ensure that we continue to do what we do, doing it well and supporting our customers at the same time.”

“We are proud to be a family business, proud to be a UK based manufacturing business and delighted to continue to build on the entrepreneurial endeavours that saw the creation of Minnitron by my Grandad over sixty years ago,” concludes Paul.