William Butler-Adams

William Butler-Adams joined Brompton in 2002, became a director in 2006 and took over as MD in 2008. Over that period the company has grown from a £2mil turnover with 27 staff to one of over £30 mil turnover with over 250 staff.

Will is passionate about all things engineering. He has worked for Nissan, ICI, DuPont and Brompton and been involved in product development, R&D, project management and manufacturing excellence. He studied Mechanical Engineering at Newcastle University and is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer.

Brompton designs, manufactures, markets and distributes folding bikes. 80% are sold overseas to 47 countries and all are made in London. Over 1200 parts go into making each of the 45,000 Brompton’s sold annually; of which 75% of the parts are designed in house and over 50% are manufactured on site. Brompton has been working towards perfecting its folding bike for 40years and continues to do so with the full efforts of its entire staff.

• Will Was made an OBE in 2014 for services to UK manufacturing
• Commissioner for UKCES (UK Commission for Employment and Skills)
• Member of the London Regional Council of the Engineering Employers Federation
• Trustee of Inspiring the Future
• Ambassador to the International Festival of Business 2016

Will’s thoughts on running a business:

“What you need to have in a business is permanent disorder. Permanent change, permanent new ideas, permanent questioning. As people, we like to have order. But that doesn’t create change. That doesn’t stretch the business. So this business is always changing. If we are going to be a hundred-million-pound business or a billion-pound business, then we’ve got to keep on coming up with new ideas and coming up with new ways to approach problems and solve problems.”