Former Bradford City player Eugene Martinez has put his firm back in the business "Premier League" after it has worked its way up the promotion ladder.

Mr Martinez, 42, who was a left-winger for City 20 years ago, has brought Chase Advanced Technologies back from the brink by encouraging managers to work together as a team.

The pattern of events has almost mirrored those of the club he played for between 1977 and 1979 when he made it to the first team aged 19.

He described the firm, based on the city's EuroCam hi-tech estate off Mayo Avenue, as "on its knees" a year before he took over.

That summer The Bantams moved up from the Second to the First Division on a journey which would lead them to the Premier League they entered last week. At the same time a number of key decisions were made at Chase which led to the firm rising from the ashes.

The firm, which was started by his well-known father Dr Tony Martinez in 1989, employed about 100 workers when it moved to new premises on the EuroCam estate. It manufactures and assembles components for other hi-tech companies such as Filtronic Comtek and British Aerospace.

At the beginning of 1995 Chase acquired a firm called Alliance International in Connecticut, USA which became Chase Inc. and things started to go badly wrong.

He said: "The move to the EuroCam estate was costly and things went sour with Chase Inc when a large order was cancelled. At the same time our managers were not working well as a team. I was sent out to run the American operation and had some success but it was not enough to save the firm.

"At the end of 1996 Chase was close to going out of business and a decision was taken to close the American firm. The organisation was on its knees. When I came back to Britain I was given the opportunity to take the position of managing director of Chase at the start of 1997."

In the last two-and-a-half years Mr Martinez has turned the company round by implementing changes using the know-how of American management guru Eliyahu Goldratt which led to managers working as a team.

A re-organisation led to the shedding of 50 jobs out of 190 and in 1997 the firm reported a loss of £960,000. "Continued hard work through 1998 increased sales from current and additional customers," he said.

The firm has grown by 40 per cent, pushed its workforce up to 170, seen its turnover rise to £6.5 million and recorded a profit of £340,000.

"Now we are looking at a growth rate of between 20 and 25 per cent a year, taking on more staff and a brighter future. We have new business objectives and a better organisation to work in," he said.

Mr Martinez stressed that the new-found success was not his alone.

"Just as City has Paul Jewell at the helm, he also has a team working together which has helped them get where they are today. That's why we are now a successful company once more," he added.

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