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Panaz-1With over twenty five years of design excellence and differentiation through technical innovation resulting in a diverse and comprehensive range of beautiful, exclusive and durable fabrics, Panaz has established itself as one of Europe’s leading suppliers of high quality decorative fabrics and wallcoverings for the Hospitality, Healthcare and Corporate sectors. Based in Burnley, Lancashire, Panaz works with internationally acclaimed Interior Designers to ensure a constant flow of new collections, fabric constructions and technical developments which grace some of the most iconic interiors around the world.

Therefore, it comes as little surprise that Panaz would seek to continue breaking new boundaries and exploring ways of maintaining and enhancing its leading market position. It was to this end that Panaz embarked on a change management programme late in 2013. To deliver this, Panaz approached the Fashion and Textile Group Training Association, www.fashionandtextiles-gta.co.uk based at Huddersfield’s Textile Centre of Excellence, to engage in their Change Management programme. Offered as one of the many initiatives via the Employment Ownership of Skills Programme (EOP), textiles and apparel companies were able to receive up to fifty per cent funding to enable them to enhance the skills of their workforce.

Karen Fairhurst, Head of Human Resources and Executive Assistant to Panaz’s CEO, Tony Attard OBE, implemented the change strategy and had a clear set of goals. “It was all about giving top down training to bring change to the business,” said Karen. “We wanted to explore three key priorities: – what is working, what needs to change and what are the barriers to change?”
Eighteen people from the management team, from board level through to the operational and management teams, embarked on the three month process in October 2013. “In Phase 1, the programme was based around the areas that were working, in Phase 2 it was about performance management and managing staff and Phase 3 was a series of workshops about taking leadership and the leadership challenge,” said Karen.

The outcomes of the Change Management Programme were very positive as outlined by Karen. “One of the things I’m really keen on when we introduce management training is that we have tangible results. As a result of the training, we had a dashboard of KPI’s throughout the business which are reviewed monthly for any slippages and we also introduced a new coaching style disciplinary procedure.”

Panaz-2A quote from a completed Training & Evaluation Form reads, “I went into this course a little unclear as to what the content would be. However, it was thought provoking and engaging with a positive outcome for the business,” (Paul Watson).

The programme was so successful that Panaz has since embarked on another 2020 Vision management programme, from “Focus on the Future” to “In Search of Excellence”. A third training programme “In Search of Mastery” is also being considered. “We wanted to be able to communicate more effectively so we could cascade information through the business,” said Karen. “The programme has achieved exactly that for Panaz and it has also created future platforms for change to enhance our business.”

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