Under the leadership of Metalwork Manager, Steve Groom, the team brings a wide variety of skills to their work. These include fabrication, welding, metal finishing and machine operation.

Every item the team produces is bespoke and can range from things like bottle racks and hangers to entire restaurant bars.

Bespoke projects

Each job begins with a specification. At this stage, Steve and Production Co-ordinator Nick Horsfall will check it through, suggest changes and draw up job packs. Next, the team gets started on the project. They all bring different levels of experience to their work, ranging from metal fabricator and welder Geoff Wilkinson’s decades in the industry through to trainee fabricator and sheet metalworker Bruce Smith (he’s learning fast!)

One of the department’s biggest challenges is time. Steve says: “The timescales for some jobs are really tight. Restaurant jobs in particular often require a very quick turnaround. Luckily, everyone in the team is up for a challenge and often push their skills to the limit.”

Poised for expansion

The metalwork team has grown significantly over the last few years. “When I came here two-and-a-half years ago,” Steve explains, “there were three people. Now there are eight. Over the last couple of years, we’ve acquired seven or eight new machines and we’ve increased our number of welding bays. We’re in a really good position to grow for the future.”