Spreadsheets, strategy and a suspicious number of purple plates, meet Luke Vincett, Texcel’s Finance Director, whose bright eyes and brighter ideas keep our business in brilliant shape......
Walk into Luke Vincett's office at Texcel and you'll find more than ledgers and spreadsheets. It is a curated museum of mischief - an evolving collection of practical jokes, curiosities, and light-hearted feuds with former Director Peter Shawyer. Between the novelty props and "evidence exhibits", you sense this is a man who enjoys a bit of theatre with his figures.
Bright-eyed and endlessly energetic, Luke speaks as if he's got a perpetual shot of espresso in hand. His career to date has been anything but ordinary, ranging from police work, army officer training, and entrepreneurship to board-level leadership, before finally finding a home in the fast-paced, precision-driven world of electronics manufacturing.
It started in a house with shelves stocked not with comics but with tomes on macroeconomic theory from his economist mother and The Lord of the Rings from his fantasy book obsessed father. Most boys might have revolted but Luke was enthralled. “I was fascinated by how the world worked, both the numbers and the stories,” he says.
A school work placement at the local police station instigated a fascination with investigation, a thread that has quietly run through every role since. Later, at King's College London, he read History, though weekends found him in mud and camouflage, enrolled in the London University Officers' Training Corps. While others nursed Snakebite-and-Black hangovers, Luke was up at dawn learning navigation, using firearms and the art of keeping calm under pressure. The financial perks, free food, bursaries and copious Kendal Mint Cake were a bonus.
His brief spell in the police (a full 48 hours, by his reckoning) taught him something important: his vocation of investigating lay elsewhere. He moved into audit and accountancy, joining one of the top twenty UK firms. He doubled down on learning driven by the very same curiosity that had initially made him wonder how economies tick. "Audit work is a bit like detective work," he grins. "You're still looking for the truth—just with fewer sirens."
By 2000 he was a qualified Chartered Accountant and had found his niche helping businesses. His employment took him through sectors as varied as retail, manufacturing, commercial property and charitable trusts. “Every organisation has blind spots,” Luke says. “I liked shining a light on them.”
An entrepreneurial streak led him to co-found a laboratory business, serving major pharmaceutical names including GSK. The venture thrived and was later sold, a happy ending to what could have been a terrifying leap of faith, not to mention a large personal Directors guarantee.
Luke joined Texcel Technology in 2014, with that rare blend of financial precision and operational grit. Over time, his remit has expanded to encompass HR, Health & Safety, and Facilities, while as Company Secretary, he says he is now Texcel's in-house policeman, "trying to make sure everyone sticks to the rules."
Far from the stereotype of the gloomy bean counter, Luke's outlook is relentlessly positive. He runs an open-door policy, not just in theory but literally, his office door is never closed. That attitude feeds into Texcel's culture of openness, something he's proud to see passed down through generations of employees. "We've got staff whose parents worked here, and now their kids are doing work experience. That's what a proper company culture looks like." He's quick to credit his team, as he says, "There's no ivory tower here. We roll up our sleeves together." His weeks are an ever-shifting mix of contract reviews, stock discussions, labour-rate analysis and making sure the cash flow keeps pace with Texcel's ambitions. And those ambitions are substantial. In 2025 alone Texcel has invested heavily in automation and equipment, new 3D printers, wash stations, coating systems and feeders, all part of a long-term plan to expand production and strengthen UK manufacturing at a time when so many have disappeared offshore.
As the company approaches its 50th anniversary in 2026, he’s leading the financial aspect of some significant upgrades: remodelling the mezzanine floor to make space for production, adding a new conformal-coating booth with ATEX fume extractors and investing in more energy-efficient systems. “Keeping manufacturing alive in the UK is something worth celebrating,” he says.
Outside of work, Luke's playful streak emerges. For example, his wife once replaced their purple dinner set with a tasteful, sage-green one. Luke, naturally, keeps sneaking single purple plates that he hid, back into circulation (one at a time) just to watch the confusion unfold. "It's a long-term experiment in patience," he laughs. The family cats, he admits, are less a source of joy but his 3 kids love them.
If you’ve got a question about Texcel’s, want to understand more or simply fancy a chat and some Kendal Mint Cake, Luke’s door is always open. Drop by his office or send him a message, he’s never far from a calculator, a coffee and a good conversation.
