Wolverhampton specialist fastenings manufacturer BST Supplies has a new management team in place after seeing turnover more than double in the past three years.
During the period staff numbers have soared from around 50 to over 100 at peak times before settling at 90.
Now the firm, under a new management team, is on a recruitment drive again and looking to take the business to new heights.
James Mee has taken over from his father Stuart as managing director and been joined by financial director Paul Adams. An operations director to complete the management trio is due to be announced shortly.
The business was founded 24 years ago by Stuart Mee and co-director Tony Lawless who have now taken a non-executive role on the board.
BST Supplies manufactures precision special fasteners, threaded and machined components, often in small to medium or prototype-sized batches. The majority of components are manufactured in materials that are corrosion and/or heat resistant and may be required to be chemical resistant with many being safety or life-critical.
The firm supplies the petrochemical, nuclear and naval industries and government bodies and major clients are increasingly requiring their suppliers to meet tough environmental standards.
BST now employs more than 90 staff at on its Zenith site in Fordhouse Road, Bushbury, Wolverhampton and has a turnover of more £10 million a year.
But James Mee is keen to keep pushing the business hard and build on the foundations laid by his father and Mr Lawless.
“We are constantly examining what we do and how we do it, and to that end we recently incorporated a new mechanical testing facility on site – something we used to sub-contract.
“We are investing heavily in people and training and work with both the apprenticeship schemes and the University of Wolverhampton’s graduate placement scheme.”
The business has also invested £150,000 in Manufacturing Resource Planning software called Efacs which has saved considerable time and enables BST Supplies to ensure that it always has the right materials in stock.
The company has also expanded physically, taking on an adjoining 6000 sqft unit which it owned but had been renting out.
And now, in 2012, a business that used to close for the weekend at midday on Fridays, now runs 24 hours a day, five days a week.
Which has in turn created recruitment and skills difficulties.
James Mee said: “We are finding it difficult to recruit engineers to work in our machine shop and first rate technical sales staff are very hard to find.
“For our night shift we are looking not just for technical staff but also in quality and packing. Whereas the day shift on our coating facility was able to cope with demand, we are now running the coating facility 24 hours a day as well.”
And with the increase in demand and staff numbers, the firm has introduced a whole new production layout across the two factory units, ensuring lean manufacturing systems to save time and money.
BST has recently added countries such as Columbia and Australia to an impressive overseas customer list which includes Singapore, Malaysia, Brazil, Norway, Germany, France, Angola, Poland and the USA.
James Mee said: “We are committed to continue our growth and we are working hard to ensure that we find the right people so recruitment and skills are very high on the management team’s agenda.”
