Jerrod Hartley, chief executive, Airframe Designs
We established in 2009 as a stress analysis consultancy, initially focusing on the analysis of aircraft structures.
in association with
We grew the business organically from a one man band to a team of five over a long period. In 2019 a lead engineer down in the Coventry office left the business. This left me exposed and I decided to bring the business to Blackpool. I decided I was going to scale the business.
Opportunities in defence are huge with what’s happening around the world and I think we doubled our growth between 2023 and 2024. We’re working within FalconWorks, the BAE centre for research and technology in the air sector that’s looking at future opportunities.
We have supporters within BAE and Dave Holmes, managing director of FalconWorks, is a big advocate and they’ve given us some good work already.
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As a business we need to go out and win work from MBDA, the European defence manufacturer, and from other high value customers so we’re less exposed to just working in the air sector.
We don’t have any issues hiring younger people. We work very closely with the Blackpool and The Fylde College which has an apprenticeship scheme with BAE Systems and Marshalls Aerospace.
We piggy backed on to their courses which are aligned to what BAE needs. So we’ve currently got six engineering apprentices in our business.
Paul O’Brien, head of sustainability, Senator Group
If you look at it from a skills base, we’ve got a lot of people who’ve worked at Senator for 20 or 30 years or more. It’s obviously a really good place to work but we have an ageing workforce.
So how do we tap into that next generation of people and bring those skills forward? Some of these are traditional skills, whether it’s manufacturing, sewing, upholstery, welding or practical skills. But when we’re dealing with younger people, soft skills sometimes get overlooked.
There’s an opportunity for manufacturers and the education sector to work together but we can’t lose sight of softer skills, otherwise it’s a very difficult environment for them to thrive in.
We’re fortunate because we’re a big manufacturer so we’ve got a lot of backing. Smaller businesses may struggle.
We’ve got a great training and development team that works with the colleges and we can create bespoke training packages.
Colin Mustoe founded Senator in the 1970s and he’s always been environmentally and socially aware of the impacts of manufacturing.
He created a recycling department 20 to 30 years ago and supports the local youth zones and colleges.
There’s a lot goes on behind the scenes that we haven’t broadcast but we have to talk about now because our clients want to know what kind of businesses they’re buying from. They want to know these stories.
Zowi Whittaker, group sustainability and environmental director, Fox Group
We work with everyone from one man bands to infrastructure operators like Balfour Beatty. We have worked on the Singleton Bypass and on the M55 link road.
We’ve just launched our new asphalt plant and it is something that we talk about in terms of investment in sustainability.
We have 350 HGVs on the road every day. That’s our minimum number. We also have road sweepers, trucks, vans, smaller trucks. We use a lot of diesel.
For us to make changes, our challenge is that it costs a lot of money. Back in 2022, we were the first in the UK to buy electric tippers – one cost the same as three traditionally powered vehicles.
People ring up and say ‘I need your EVs working on this’ and as long as it works logistically then, yes, we can help.
We went through a private equity sale in September last year with Stellex and they were attracted to us because sustainability was at the core of what we do.
The whole message of today’s conversation is about collaboration, whether it’s with education providers, MPs, the chambers, because they can fight your corner when talking about funding, investment, policy changes and influencing the skills curriculum.
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