How growing firm is engineering success
A HUDDERSFIELD engineering firm has invested in jobs, machinery and quality standards during a year of “sustained growth”.
B&B Precision, based at Clayton West, has been running night shifts and weekend working at its Park Mill Way premises to cope with rising demand for its precision-made engineering components.
The sub-contract manufacturer has recruited both permanent and temporary staff – creating seven new posts and taking on two new apprentices over the past three years to bring employee numbers to 30.
And it has invested about £2m in new machines at its Park Mill Way premises, including a high velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) thermal spray booth that has created three jobs and helped open up new markets for the coating of components which are used in extreme conditions such as subsea in the oil and gas sector.
The company, which dates back to the 1970s and is led by managing director Steven Haigh, has also invested in a new milling machine, staff training and laboratory facilities. It has also recruited a new operations manager, Richard Crowther.
Marketing manager Oliver Gwynne said: “The company has seen nice, steady growth over the last seven years and the order book is getting fuller every year. We have seen big demand from the oil and gas sector over the last few years.”
Mr Gwynne said the firm’s success was also down to its diverse customer base.
“Things are uncertain at the moment in the UK manufacturing industry,” he said. “A lot of businesses are doing very well but a lot of well-established firms are going under. A lot of businesses going under have been tied to one big customer and they suffer when the customer suffers.
“What we have been doing differently is to diversity to attract bigger businesses as well as continuing to supply the needs of local companies.
“We work with a lot of original equipment manufacturers and in the oil and gas, power generation and automotive sectors.”
He said: “As a sub-contract manufacturer, we know that what our customers care about is the right part, delivered at the right time to the right specification.
“Both logistic and quality procedures play a key part in the day-today running of our business and we have constantly re-invested into our team to ensure we are working in the most efficient way. We are proud to have recently been accredited to ISO 9001:2015 standards and are also on the path towards AS9100D.
Mr Gwynne said: “Through the long-term relationships we have with customers we have been able to grow in a steady and sustainable Steven Haigh (left), managing director, with Richard Crowther, operations manager, and (far left) apprentice Connor Holten in the metallurgical lab examining a coating sample way and this has allowed us to create new jobs in the region.
“In 2017, we have had to run both weekend and night shifts in order to cope with demand and this has meant we’ve recruited both permanent and temporary staff. Over the last three years we have created seven new positions within the company and have also taken on two new apprenticeships.
“We have also heavily re-invested in more machines to increase our capacity and enable us to better meet the needs of our customers.
“If we wish to continue growing, we simply have to keep the customer at the core of everything we do. We are constantly reviewing and researching new and different ways to make us more efficient as an organisation and therefore serve our customers better.
“Through the addition of new machines and new services such as HVOF coating we hope to provide a reliable all in one manufacturing service to our customers.”