PRODUCT INNOVATION
A lathe with an 80 mm bore for producing ‘Lazy S’ clutch turns. A CNC mill used to produce quality bespoke designs.
by another architectural ironmongery business, and a company supplying ceramic materials to the education sector.
Early interest in craft skills Growing up in Port Talbot, he explained, he enjoyed metalwork, woodwork, maths, and physics, at school, explaining why, as he put it, ‘I am more technical and innovative in my approach’. He said: “When I was at secondary school, Port Talbot had Europe’s biggest steelworks. As it transpired, however, British Steel didn’t offer me an apprenticeship there; instead I did a four-year apprenticeship at Metalbox in Neath, a company widely regarded as running one of the best engineering apprenticeships in South Wales.” MetalBox, a leading manufacturer of metal cans (now CarnaudMetalbox Engineering), put him through ‘a first- class apprenticeship’ as a cutter, turner, and toolmaker. “Unfortunately,” he explained, “we were the first intake in the company’s history to be made redundant – due to the recession biting in South Wales. Thereafter, I got a job as a quality control inspector with Delair in Ammanford, which produced car heaters and air-conditioning units. The Quality Control Department didn’t like me much though, because I was extremely particular about ensuring that every component was manufactured to the highest standards.”
A freer rein
Fortunately, he was soon able to transfer to the company’s prototyping engineering workshops, where he ‘loved every minute’. He said: “In Prototyping I had a much freer rein. The design engineers would ask me – as a prototype craftsman – for advice on whether particular components could be made. They’d produce a drawing, and I’d make whatever they had come up with. When I started I was quality control inspector for Jaguar Cars, and worked on components for them for some 18 months. I later dealt with Jaguars, Fords, Volvos, and DAF trucks – a good mix of engineering challenges, undertaking work that really
68 Health Estate Journal May 2019
developed my design, crafting, moulding, and machining skills with a variety of metals and plastics.”
His next job took him into architectural ironmongery. He explained: “My father was a builder’s merchant’s man for most of his career, having started as an apprentice ironmonger. He convinced me that with my technical knowledge, I should become a sales representative for the same company, ‘DB’s, owned by Blue Circle. On becoming a sales ‘rep’, I soon discovered though that builders are not always the most accurate or knowledgeable people, and, finding it difficult to deal with them – due to their lack of finesse – I began developing my own customer base.”
Training agency business
He rapidly picked up accounts from many of the area’s construction sector training agencies, and from hospitals as far afield as Aberystwyth. He explained: “At that stage I was still working for DBs, but Blue Circle then sold the business to a company called Robert Price in Abergavenny, and I worked for it for a short period.” Not enjoying his time there, however, Alan Rees then started his own business, but not, as he explained, under its current name. He said: “For the past 20 years I have often struggled to get the builders’ merchants, architectural ironmongers, and locksmiths, to look at buying my product, because they all think I am a competitor, whereas – as you can see from my portfolio – there is no architectural ironmonger in the country capable of doing what we do here. I had always wanted to manufacture and distribute product. Recently, working with a marketing consultant, we recognised that the brand name should indeed be ‘Creative Ironmongery’, because much of our architectural ironmongery is genuinely quite creative.”
On leaving Robert Price, and in collaboration with his sister, he established and ran two separate businesses, Systembox Ceramic (SC) Supplies, supplying plaster products to the education sector for sculpture tuition,
and an architectural ironmongery business, Systembox. The latter mostly supplied standard products to the acute and mental healthcare sectors UK-wide, as well as to Jersey, France, Peru, Canada, and the US. He explained: “Up until four years ago, we were based in South Wales, and in essence purchased other architectural ironmongery products and sold them. I did, however, modify and enhance some existing designs.”
Move to Northamptonshire SC Supplies continued operating in Port Talbot until 2014, but, for personal, legal, and practical reasons, and the sudden death of two shareholders, the company was liquidated. Alan Rees had already moved from South Wales to Corby; he liked the area, and favoured its central location. “On moving here,” he explained, “my wife, Helen, and I established a new architectural ironmongery business, which we have since run, latterly with the brand name, Creative Ironmongery, with the dual aims of continuing to supply other manufacturers’ products, and developing our own range for a select range of long- standing customers.
“Our customer base – particularly among NHS Trusts – has since continued to push for new product development.” Once In Corby, Alan Rees planned initially to undertake all his new product design and development in a workshop in his house, which he still uses. However, having in August 2016 identified a small industrial unit in Corby, taken a lease on it, and moved a new CNC press brake into it, the opportunity arose to purchase an adjacent larger building, which now houses the company’s offices, administrative functions, a meticulously well-organised and stocked ‘stores’ facility, and production facilities.
‘Let down’ by local fabricators Alan Rees explained: “We decided to lease the first building after discovering that local fabricators couldn’t produce the components to the standard we required. Our machining is still undertaken by companies in South Wales. When we
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