Proof of its metal
British Steel gives 5% of firm to workers
BRITISH Steel has handed 5% of the firm to workers after bouncing back into the black.
The perk could mean the company’s 4,800-strong workforce is quids in if it ever pays a dividend or is sold.
The firm has already returned staff to full pay after they agreed to a 3% cut to help shore up its finances.
It came as British Steel – bought for £1 by private equity owners Greybull Capital a year ago – announced a £126million turnaround.
The company, which revived the British Steel name at the time of the takeover, made £47m profit in the 12 months to March 31, compared with a £79m loss in the final year it was owned by industry giant Tata Steel.
The profit – the best for a decade – was boosted by hiving off lossmaking parts of the business, increasing its share of the UK construction market and growing exports.
Raw material costs soared 44%. However, it recouped all but £15m of that from charging higher prices.
Executive chairman Roland Junck, speaking at the firm’s main Scunthorpe plant, said: “This is a business that people thought would die, would disappear. We have demonstrated that is not true.”
The company makes everything from the track for the London’s Crossrail project to the steel used in wire wool, tyres and paper clips.
It has hired 500 new staff, and was swamped with applications for apprenticeships.
But the 3,000 workers at the vast Scunthorpe site is a fraction of the 25,000 in its 1960s heyday.
Paul Martin, the firm’s managing director, called for a “level playing field” on energy costs, rates and government steel-buying plans to boost its long-term future.
Junck also warned about the “uncertainty” caused by Brexit amid fears that tariffs could be slapped on exports to the EU.