2019 has been an outstanding year of growth, achievements, highlights and continuous improvement for Bradbury Group. In this round-up, we give an overview of some of our greatest achievements and highlights from the year.
One of the key business developments for Bradbury Group, this year, was the acquisition of the well-established physical security solution provider, Liddle Doors.
Liddle Doors has been delivering and installing security products for over 40 years, particularly within the utilities, water and energy sectors.
This has enabled us to further expand our product and service offering to include kiosks, bar sets, anti-climb solutions, access hatches, and associated civil works.
We are passionate about charity and have hosted several fundraisers this year for some great causes. These include Macmillan Cancer Support, Children in Need, and Save the Children.
In October, 14 of our employees took part in a team Brave the Shave for Macmillan Cancer Support. We hosted an event where the shaves took place and over 100 people attended. In total, we are proud to have raised over £3500, of which Bradbury Group kindly donated £1000.
Other fundraisers we took part in include Macmillan Coffee Morning which coincided with the annual Great Bradbury Bake Off; Children in Need for which we had a dress down day, and participated in the duck race sweepstake; and, lastly, Christmas Jumper Day for Children in Need.
We’ve had many features on BBC Look North which saw our Managing Director, Tim Strawson, interviewed by Sarah Corker. The most recent was about Youth Engineering Scunthorpe, the charitable enterprise set up to help young people gain skills to find full-time work. Another interview saw Tim and some of our production operatives talk about the effects of Brexit on the manufacturing industry.
Bradbury Group has also been featured in some of the top industry magazines such as Business Focus, Door Industry Journal and Manufacturing Today. In these articles, Tim explains our steel door production process, the benefits of moving into our state-of-the-art facility, and prospects of the business.
There was also the recent announcement of Bradbury Group’s exciting partnership with Adler & Allan, whereby they have become the only approved distributor and installer of M2MFL flood defence doorsets. Mark Griffiths, Head of Asset Protection at Adler & Allen said:
“Bradbury Group, in our opinion, have got the best flood security solution on the market. The M2MFL range is not only accredited as a security option and a flood protection device, but first and foremost, as a functioning door – which will be its primary function 99 per cent of the time. It’s the only door currently on the market that ticks every box.”
There are several awards that we have been shortlisted for and many we have already won. The most recent award that Bradbury Group has been shortlisted for is the OSPA’s Outstanding Manufacturer of the Year 2020 and Made in Yorkshire’s Manufacturer of the Year (under £25m) 2020. We look forward to attending the awards ceremonies and meeting all the finalists in February.
This year, the North Lincolnshire Business Awards honoured Tim with the Lifetime Achievement award. Tim won the award for his contributions to the region. Tim started a business with three people in 1991, and developed it into Bradbury Group, an industry-leading company with over 200 employees. Tim also set up Youth Engineering Scunthorpe, the charitable enterprise which has helped over 50 young and long-term unemployed people to find work.
Bradbury Group proudly supported Youth Engineering Scunthorpe at the local Community Champion Awards, where they won Community Project of the Year. YES was founded by our Managing Director, Tim Strawson, and the award was collected by the Managing Director of YES, Lindsay Cates.
Bradbury Group invested £150,000 in a staff gym, which has a wide range of cardio and weight resistance machines. We believe it’s important for our staff to keep active, and enjoy fitness. The gym was named ‘Made to Motivate’ as a play on our M2M door range name ‘made to measure’.
For Employee Appreciation Day, directors Patsy and Andy gave out cupcakes to all of our employees as a way to thank everyone for their hard work throughout the year. We think it’s important to show tokens of gratitude throughout the year to ensure a positive work environment.
Our canteen team is always being creative with their menus and often hold themed canteen days to coincide with significant dates such as St Georges Day and Independence Day. They also run quizzes related to the theme, as well as a raffle, and prizes are offered to the winners.
Recognising the importance of mental wellbeing, we are proud to have supported the #TalkSuicide campaign which aims to get rid of the stigma attached to suicide. As a regional champion for the campaign, we promoted suicide prevention training on social media and internally. We offered resources to our staff to complete the training to increase their knowledge on how to identify if someone is having suicidal thoughts and how they can help.
Since moving into our state-of-the-art factory, we have been approached by many people who are interested in what we do. To give a full understanding of our business, we offer a full tour of our factory where you can witness each step of the door production process in action. This year, we welcomed several businesses in our industry, the Scunthorpe Rotary Club, and North Lindsey College.
Throughout 2019, we have become increasingly busier, which has led to us achieving some incredible new records. We managed to manufacture 110 doors in one day, as well as sending out 171 doors for delivery in one day.
We have an extremely hardworking and motivated workforce who are passionate about their jobs and strive to provide the greatest service and high-quality products.
This year, we introduced annualised hours to our production staff which has been beneficial for both the company and its employees. We are thankful to them for embracing the change and preparing for a busy 2020.
It has been a fantastic year for Bradbury Group, and we already have plans in place to improve our efficiency and customer service experience and increase our product and service offering in 2020. We are excited to share these plans with you and are certain that Bradbury Group will continue to grow and achieve even more in the New Year.
To our valued suppliers, customers and employees, and all other associates to the Group, we would like to wish you a very merry Christmas, and look forward to continuing to work with you in 2020.
