JC Metalworks sees major sales boost

The firm, which employs almost 100 people at its Bishop Meadow Road facility, has secured a string of new contracts to supply precision metal parts for point of sale and products being used by high street brands, restaurants and clients involved in the automotive, retail and Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) sectors.

Backed by expert support from the Manufacturing Growth Programme (MGP), the company has completed a strategic business review that identified the need for a more cohesive approach, a programme of upskilling across the workforce and the implementation of new lean manufacturing processes.

This has resulted in a £1 million surge in business, with the firm now planning to achieve £10 million turnover by 2020 – a £3.3 million increase on its current £6.7 million order book.

Explains managing director Nick Oakland: “There’s a lot of opportunities in retail POS and we are now pro-actively targeting those with very good effect. Our flexibility, manufacturing capabilities and ability to get involved in design makes us a natural fit and the recent new contracts underline this – these are technically demanding projects that need a strategic approach with the client.”

He adds: “It’s all about building relationships and ensuring customers know our full range of expertise and how we can support them going forward. We are now up to £6.7 million annual sales and want to increase this year-on-year between now and 2020. If we can hit the £10 million as anticipated we’ll definitely need more staff; there could be as many as 20 new jobs.”

Says MGP manufacturing growth manager James Bosworth: “We are here to help manufacturers unlock their potential by getting under their skin and finding out what the issues or barriers to growth are. Once this first step has been completed, external experts are introduced that have the skills they need to help them achieve their plans. Nick and his team are a great example. Over £1 million new orders secured in 12 months with a full pipeline of potential work too.”

JC Metalworks, which also runs its own apprenticeship programme, has invested over £250,000 into improvements over the last 18 months. This has included new racking, a pressbrake machine and the introduction of an IT system that uses barcodes to capture shopfloor information.