The year is 1999; in Manchester Town Hall a meeting takes place, one of a series of meetings which brings together many people concerned with plans for the regeneration of East Manchester.
Round the table were civic leaders, captains of industry, local business people and community volunteers. Everybody was in agreement, that there should be no half measures, and no faint hearts. Manchester needs regeneration, the new Millennium must be faced with strength and total commitment, everybody knows that success in East Manchester will bring vital regeneration money, bringing with it jobs for people who so desperately need them, bringing better living conditions, bringing hope and a better future for the young.
In the same year, just a mile away from the Town Hall, a man contemplates a regeneration of his own. He considers a new future for himself and his family armed only with an idea. He to wants to bring jobs, hope, and prosperity. In that year Frank Garvey, after suffering a series of knocks in the building industry, decided to set up a company to market his own invention. He wanted to place his company in the heart of Ancoats, close to the city centre. Frank has had a long association with the area, and started his business from a run down school that he'd purchased two years before. With great belief in his idea and a determination as hard as the stone he had used as a builder, Frank started to turn his ideas and hopes into reality. He named his Company Fingershield Safety (UK).
Fingershield supply anti finger trapping devices to thousands of schools, nurseries and numerous other establishments throughout the UK, USA and Ireland. The product has now become an essential safety item for thousands of places where young children congregate.
Visiting the offices of Fingershield is quite an uplifting experience. This is a family-run company which employs approximately twenty people of all ages from teens to sixties and even beyond. There are no airs and graces, first names are used by all, to all and respect for all is paramount. This approach transfers itself to the customer base and that in return brings in a lot of recommended business, which makes life easy for the forty or so field agents. It is no wonder that Fingershield has won a number of prestigious awards, including two department of trade 'Smart Awards', With I.S.O. accreditation and the much sought after 'Investors In People Award' . Fingershield safety is recognized as a socially responsible organisation marketing only socially responsible products and conduct business in an ethical manner. Frank's son-in-law Paul O'Carroll, is his business partner and the company's Managing Director. Frank's daughter Joanne is also a Director/Manager for the company.
Having achieved so much in a small number of years Frank could be forgiven if he just put his feet up and let Fingershield pay him a nice pension but he has more ideas buzzing around his head and he has recently launched a new and exiting innovation to benefit both new and existing clients. It is called The 2NC Alert System, which is designed to assist schools to combat the rapidly growing problems of truancy, bullying, drug use and vandalism in schools. Results from trials in selected schools has been overwhelmingly good from both parents and teachers perspectives. Already incidents of truancy, bullying, vandalism, and drug use have been greatly reduced during the short period the product has been in use.
Frank has a strong sense of community and apart from being a governor of Nicholas Varley Community School he is an enthusiastic supporter of Have Your Say Magazine and helps our volunteers to raise Funds, which helps us to survive and strengthen.
Have Your Say magazine has a growing readership who now live abroad and Fingershield would welcome contact from our overseas readers who feel that they would like to be involved in bringing Fingershield to their adopted Countries.
Michael Bishop
Email; info@fingershield.co.uk
Or go to the website; www.fingershield.co.uk
Other websites are; www.fingershieldsafety.com (USA)
www.fingershieldsafety.ie (Ireland)
