A challenging time, but some firms are coping brilliantly
‘‘ We didn’t want to suddenly become an online training company simply asking individuals to stare at Powerpoints on a screen for hours on end - Mark Soanes, director, Call of the Wild
‘‘ We are delighted to be in a position of creating new jobs in the company after such a period of uncertainty for the economy and the world in general - Alan Brayley, managing director of AB Glass
‘‘ It’s wonderful to be able to offer this van giveaway as a way of raising spirits going into 2021. I’m sure the winner will be able to take advantage of the van’s practicality and utility in their own enterprise, and it will make a big difference to their life and work - Rod Lloyd, managing director of Low Cost Vans
IT’S a year since the first Covid lockdown, with its impact inducing the biggest fall in economic output ever experienced by the UK economy.
Many firms were effectively mothballed, but those that could trade had to adapt, and quickly.
Here, we feature South West Wales firms who not only survived the unprecedented economic turbulence of the past 12 months, but are looking forward with confidence.
AB GLASS
AB Glass, a specialist in the technology and installation of aluminium and glass products and access control solutions, has weathered the Covid storm relatively well. Work in the manufacturing and construction industries has continued through the crisis, albeit with stringent safety checks and social distancing measures.
As such, Swansea-based AB Glass, which works with blue chip clients across the UK, was also able to continue operating. It introduced home working arrangements where possible and invested in enhanced cleaning for its production and office facilities.
Its main challenge came from disrupted supply chains and the wider economic uncertainty triggered by Covid.
Come the autumn of 2020, however, when initial lockdown measures were eased, its workload and order book started to increase exponentially.
On the back of this, and eyeing further growth in 2021, it created seven new jobs and unveiled a key promotion within its business at the end of last year.
Following a six-figure investment, it is also putting the finishing touches to a new storage unit that will release 35% more floor space in its production unit. The construction of its new five-bay storage unit should finish in April 2021, in line with the projected expansion of the business.
Moving into the spring of 2021, despite further lockdown measures, its predictions have been proved correct. Demand is soaring in the construction industry, and while challenges remain around its supply chain, its managing director remains bullish.
Alan Brayley, MD of AB Glass, said: “We have endured some challenges in the past 12 months. We have been mindful of the effect of the pandemic on staff and their mental health specifically. It has also been strange at times going to work when many businesses cannot.
“But we feel we have coped well. We are delighted to be in a position of creating new jobs in the company after such a period of uncertainty for the economy and the world in general. Welcoming seven such talented and motivated individuals into the business gives the whole company a lift as we gear up for a very busy period and a very big pipeline as we eye the rest of 2021.”
MINISTRY OF FURNITURE
Ministry of Furniture, which emerged from the closure of the Port Talbot Remploy factory in 2013, was forced to adapt quickly to the uncertainty surrounding Covid-19.
While it used government support schemes such as furlough to some extent, it also repositioned itself and changed its offering quickly – not just to remain commercially viable but also to help battle the pandemic.
During the pandemic its team prioritised innovation and adaptability. As a result, it designed and manufactured Protektseries screens, a bespoke graphic screen range, which was supplied to one of the leading UK furniture companies, distributing to all areas of the UK.
The line includes semipermanent screens that can be fixed to tables or desks to create barriers between workstations, free-standing protection screens, and clip-on screens that can be added to existing desk partitions, all designed to help create safer environments for those re-entering workplaces after the Covid-19 lockdown. This initiative was supported by a sixfigure invoice finance facility from Lloyds Bank.
The products have been adapted for use within NHS facilities, public reception areas, shops, bars and restaurants, schools and offices.
They offer a range of solution,s including clear screens with cutout options and graphic printed desk dividers, helping care facilities, businesses and organisations support a safe working environment.
The technology has played a key role in helping many businesses reopen safely as lockdown has eased.
It also played a key role in supporting the creation of new NHS field hospitals such as the facility built in Llandarcy Training Academy, working alongside Swansea Bay NHS staff to make the project a reality.
It also made thousands of face shields for frontline workers during the pandemic, many of which it supplied for free.
Graham Hirst, CEO, Ministry Group, said: “As an SME this has been a very challenging year and our whole team of employees have had to adapt quite quickly to keep the business moving forward.
“We have collectively branched out into new areas of manufacturing and design, learning these new skills on the job.”
LOW COST VANS
Like many businesses, Low Cost Vans was initially hit hard by the pandemic. It was forced to adapt to allow staff to work from home and furloughed a number of employees.
But since the first lockdown was lifted in the summer it has enjoyed steady sales and growth and has taken the opportunity some of the downtime has offered to launch a new range of products for the business, a move its managing director believes will stand it in good stead as the economy improves.
In the second half of last year the business hired an additional 10 staff, including a new analyst, a new head of marketing and a new director of compliance. It also launched a number of new products designed to make its customers’ journey through the lifecycle of owning a commercial vehicle easier, safer and more cost effective.
The company, based in Neath, rolled out a new vehicle maintenance service, which takes care of all a vehicle’s routine maintenance, and an innovative fleet management service, which provides customers with a mobile phone app they can use to manage many of the logistics involved in managing a fleet of vehicles.
These complemented several other additional services it launched at the start of the pandemic. In early 2020 the company also launched two new businesses: First National Cars, specialising in car leasing, and First Electric Vehicles, which will help and encourage its customers switch to electric vehicles when their leases are due for renewal.
Finally, as it moved into 2021, it has also upped the ante on its marketing.
On the back of doing its first TV advert in 2020, it launched a competition to give away a Ford Transit Custom van worth more than£20,000.
Rod Lloyd, MD of Low Cost Vans, said: “As a company, we have grown steadily, despite the pandemic, and gone from strength to strength in our core business of making commercial vehicles available to companies and individuals across the UK, keeping businesses on the road and the economy moving in the process.
“It’s wonderful to be able to offer this van giveaway as a way of raising spirits going into 2021. I’m sure the winner will be able to take advantage of the van’s practicality and utility in their own enterprise, and it will make a
big difference to their life and work.”
CALL OF THE WILD
Seven Sisters-based training company Call of the Wild was forced to change its offering dramatically due to the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown. The landscape of the Brecon Beacons had always been its USP to create unforgettable learning experiences for clients.
With face-to-face training impossible, it needed to act fast. Within months, it moved from almost exclusively operating using face-to-face delivery to rolling out a bespoke online programme, which allowed it to fulfil the needs of customers quickly and efficiently – wherever they are in the world. It also developed a unique new way of delivering its leadership courses to ensure they continue to be an immersive and challenging experience – even when completed virtually.
To ensure its sessions remained interactive, collaborative and rooted in hands-on learning, it brought the ruggedness of its green classroom to the screen by filming various scenarios and allowing participants to choose different outcomes.
One of its training programmes, themed ‘Behind Enemy Lines,’ a course designed to develop leadership skills and improve team performance and motivation, uses footage of real geographical features and the physical challenges they present, including rivers, rapids, caves and cliffs to offer participants scenariobased exercises that replicate the experience of being in the Beacons.
Through this virtual world, participants will need to work as a team to journey across the wild Brecon Beacons while completing tasks and challenges to obtain clues.
In one scenario, coordinates will lead the team to a downed plane in the area where they must find the pilot and extract him from the mountains as quickly as possible.
In another scenario, participants must enter caves and navigate a route using videos and maps.
The move to virtual also meant it was no longer limited by geography in terms of where its clients could be. On the back of that, it secured one contract to deliver management development leadership training to a large engineering company with sites in Minneapolis and Tallahassee, USA.
Mark Soanes, director, Call of the Wild, said: “We didn’t want to suddenly become an online training company simply asking individuals to stare at Powerpoints on a screen for hours on end.
“As such, we devised what we think is an innovative solution which makes our programmes as immersive as possible, delivering scenario-based training based in a green classroom setting to individuals – even while they sit at their PC. It is a form of ‘Choose Your Own Experience’ but with training and development as the ultimate goal.”
PAUL POPHAM FUND
Swansea-based kidney charity, the Paul Popham Fund, Renal Support Wales, was, like so many organisations in the charity sector, particularly hard-hit by the pandemic and lockdowns.
Not only were its usual fundraising capabilities severely hampered, but also the individuals the charity was founded to help were categorised as ‘extremely vulnerable’ to the virus’s effects.
The fund was, therefore, forced to not only adapt the way it raised money, but also to search for different ways to support those with kidney disease and their families – without meeting any of them face to face.
The staff and volunteers at the fund were ingenious and energetic in developing new fundraising methods, including virtual fundraising walks, online quizzes, and a weekly lottery. Paul Popham Fund volunteer and peer mentor Geraint John completed a sponsored walk of 23 miles in his own garden over nine hours, and fellow volunteer Paul Smith reached out to players at Swansea City FC to help him raise money by auctioning off their old kit.
Two young boys, Hugo and Jude Pagett, along with their father, shaved their heads to raise donations – Hugo was born with chronic renal failure and is soon to receive a transplant. The total they raised exceeded £2,758, with all money going towards the Paul Popham Fund project to fund the refurbishment of the Children’s Kidney Centre, University Hospital Wales.
Geraint John was keen for the funds he raised to go to staff and patients in Morriston Hospital to raise spirits during the pandemic, and so the charity provided afternoon tea to staff and patients at Morriston’s Renal Unit. The fund also purchased 16 magnifying lamps for the home therapies team at Morriston.
The charity’s usual faceto-face meetings, a vital support for those dealing with kidney disease, were curtailed by the pandemic. To ensure they could continue to support those who needed their help, they adapted their peer support service.
The charity’s volunteers, peer mentors, kidney patients – all shielding themselves – provided telephone support on the charity’s careline. The charity instinctively changed their careline from being answered by staff to being answered by the charity’s peer mentors, seven days a week 9am to 6pm, to provide accessible support, information, advice and just being available for a chat.
The charity also developed their support groups Kidney Cafés to online virtual Kidney Cafés, which included guest speakers, all experts in the field of renal care and associated medicine.
To keep communication channels open to those needing information, the fund developed a new improved website, online virtual Q&AS and a newsletter specifically aimed at children with kidney disease.
They also collaborated with Kidney Care UK, Kidney Wales and the Welsh Clinical Renal Network to produce a monthly newsletter giving advice to kidney patients during the pandemic, which has been chosen as one of the finalists for the Regional Covid-19 Response Partnership Award at the HSJ Partnership Awards 2021.
The fund has also achieved Agored accreditation for its peer mentor training programme, meaning that all volunteers undertaking the programme will achieve a recognised qualification in peer mentoring.
Jo Popham, CEO at the Paul Popham Fund, said: “The staff and volunteers here at the Paul Popham Fund have worked extremely hard during the past year to ensure that those suffering from kidney disease, and their families, have had the support they needed despite the pandemic.
“I am very proud of the way the charity has adapted to the unprecedented circumstances over the last 12 months, and believe that, despite the challenges, we find ourselves in a very strong position to continue to help those who have been diagnosed with renal failure get the support they need in the future. The Paul Popham Fund careline can be reached on 0800 038 8989.”
‘‘ We have collectively branched out into new areas of manufacturing and design, learning these new skills on the job - Graham Hirst, CEO, Ministry Group
‘‘ The staff and volunteers here at the Paul Popham Fund have worked extremely hard during the past year to ensure that those suffering from kidney disease, and their families, have had the support they needed despite the pandemic - Jo Popham, CEO at the Paul Popham Fund