Calendar 2025; technical textiles and process belts
Domestic plants
3
Distinct weaving, finishing and conversion responsibilities
Finance colleagues
31
Led through four managers
At the board table
Merrowick Fabric Holdings
Executive director
Full board; concurrent with the group CFO appointment
I do not regard a warehouse description as proof that stock remains useful. A width, finish, tolerance or customer approval can determine whether a roll is saleable. Finance needs those distinctions before it decides what to manufacture, what to carry and what a new order has genuinely committed the customer to buy.
I connect the financial value of industrial fabric with the specification and customer commitment that make it usable.
I am CFO of Merrowick Technical Fabrics, a family-controlled American manufacturer of industrial filtration fabrics and woven process belts. Our three domestic plants employ 620 people, and calendar-2025 revenue was US$146 million with US$13.1 million of operating profit. I lead 31 finance colleagues through four managers. I report to the chief executive and have served as an executive director of our parent, Merrowick Fabric Holdings, since November 2020. The figures describe the group; technical approval of a fabric or process remains with our engineering and quality colleagues.
My first textile job involved customer accounts, where a credit note sometimes explained more about the product than the original invoice. I learnt that two rolls with a similar description were not necessarily interchangeable. A customer's equipment, approved finish or required width could determine whether material had a useful destination. Over thirty-seven years, my work has moved through costing, plant control, product finance and group leadership. The question has become broader, but I still ask which specific use supports the value recorded in the account.
Recent decisions include reviewing slow-moving lots against actual approved uses, changing the commercial terms of a custom-fabric order before buying dedicated material, and separating an inspection-equipment proposal from the production assumptions attached to it. I do not want finance to become a second quality department. I want our financial decisions to use the evidence that qualified colleagues can support. A write-down may acknowledge a past loss without releasing cash; a customer deposit may share a commitment without making the entire order unconditional; and a successful trial may justify only a limited next step.
Three plants with distinct product responsibilities
The sites share group financial controls but have different weaving, finishing and conversion capabilities. I ask for the relevant operating evidence rather than assume a group average describes every product.
US$146 million of annual revenue
Calendar-2025 revenue and US$13.1 million operating profit provide scale. They do not replace the lot-level and customer-level evidence needed to judge stock, custom orders or an equipment proposal.
One executive holding-company seat
My November 2020 appointment at Merrowick Fabric Holdings is concurrent with the CFO role. It gives me group-board experience but does not establish independence for a different company.
Current focus
I am bringing product-lifecycle decisions into the inventory discussion earlier, so that a revised customer specification prompts a review before the old material has spent another year in storage.
Conversations I welcome
I would consider a single external manufacturing board role with a specific need for financial and product-economics judgement, allowing twenty-four annual days subject to consent, relationships and calendar review.
The leadership record
Trusted with consequential decisions.
Formation
Bachelor of business administration, accountingMardenwythe College of Business · 1989
Natalie asks us to explain which products the evidence covers. She leaves the technical judgement with the team and makes sure the financial proposal does not claim more than the trial established.
Estelle HarwickeQuality director, Merrowick Technical FabricsThe full record ↗
Contact
I would consider a single external manufacturing board role with a specific need for financial and product-economics judgement, allowing twenty-four annual days subject to consent, relationships and calendar review.