In the medium and long-term, the challenges are continuing to keep up with latest technology and innovation and the funding needed for that, whether from the business or from organisations such as the LEP.
When it comes to skills, a lot of companies seem to expect people just come off a production line, all skilled and ready for work. It’s the government’s responsibility to get students educated to a particular level and after that it is companies’ responsibility to train.
We created our own academy in Darwen over a decade ago with no government support. It started with one or two apprentices a year and we’re now taking 20-30. It cost us a lot of money and we’re now building a state-of-the-art academy that will train the wider industry as well. You’ve got to do this for yourself.
We’ve also been working to pull together our five-year plan and we’re looking to grow the business by 25 per cent in that period. How are we going to do that? By looking at market share growth but also by diversifying into ‘outdoor living products’; fencing and decking.
We also made a big investment in a mixing plant in 2013 and we’re starting to supply mixed compound to other extrusion organisations in the UK, so that’s a real opportunity for us.
Where do we need some help? There’s a lot more we can do around digitalisation. We don’t have much automation other than in our warehouse
operation. We need help in knowing what is state-of-the-art in that field and how we can apply it to our business.
Khalid Saifullah
Annette Weekes
PRESENT: Richard Slater
Lancashire Business View (chair)
Paul Armstrong VEKA
Steve Fogg Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Phil Heyworth
Phil Heyworth JD Engineering
Khalid Saifullah Star Tissue
Gordon Smith North West Aerospace Alliance
Annette Weekes PDS Engineering
Wayne Wild WEC Group
Gordon Smith
If feel very positive about 2021 and there will be some fantastic opportunities, you’ve just got to go and find them. We spent £5m on new state-of-the-art equipment in 2019 and that has put us in a more competitive position than most companies in the UK.
People think automation means a reduction in jobs; we’ve seen an increase in jobs in the automation areas to keep up with the increased production.
Paul Armstrong: In March, within a 48-hour period we went from working almost flat out to nothing, so we shut the factory for around eight weeks.
We started back at around 25 per cent capacity. The pace of recovery in construction was far greater than we expected, and the challenge was to then bring people back to work in a way to keep up with that demand.
Over the last three months we’ve actually exceeded our original budget levels. That has brought with it supply chain and raw material supply challenges.
Steve Fogg
To find the headroom to invest in things like automation to move forward is a challenge, but we will face that challenge.
When it comes to investing in skills, we are starting to work with Burnley College to look at developing formal qualifications and craft-type apprenticeships recognised in the industry.
Khalid Saifullah: As a business we have invested more than £5m in 2020 and built two new warehouses in Mill Hill. We’ve also put a whole new production line in.
We’re hoping to increase our business by 20 per cent in the next year. We believe that once we’re post-Covid there is going to be a lot more demand for our products.
We have diversified our range and we are producing a lot of medical hygiene products and increasing the consumer retail side. One of the things in our pipeline is the possibility of building a new manufacturing division focusing on retail hygiene products.
LANCASHIREBUSINESSVIEW.CO.UK Wayne Wild
Paul Armstrong
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