If you were watching BBC South Today yesterday, you might have spotted us!
Alistair Fee, a journalist from the BBC came to visit our five acre site to have a look at what we do and talk to our Contracts Director, Simon Boyd about the shortly-to-be released budget from Chancellor, George Osborne.
Alistair seemed somewhat fascinated by our design, fabricate, ship and erect process that creates a hive of busy workers during the day from cutting to welding to packing. He was impressed at our near 95 year history and ability to build complex steel structures in over 140 countries.
Talking to Fabricator/Welder, Craig Beale from Workshop 6, he was able to hear about REIDsteel’s steady flow of business throughout the economic downturn due to this vast experience. It is evident that we would like more support from the government and local council to take on more young people like Craig who progress through their apprenticeships with a hard-working ethos and desire to learn.
Filming live for the 6.30pm BBC South Today programme, Alistair asked Simon for his comments on the announced budget. Simon made it clear that while the “devil is in the detail”; it appears that the Chancellor does want to encourage growth in the manufacturing sector.
The emphasis on export business is of great interest to us as we export 80% of our business to an average of 20 different countries per annum, but nothing to the EU.
While we are not situated in the hub of the British steel industry, we make up for this in our business model that encourages natural expansion without relying on lenders. This means that while many of our competitors went under during the recession, we were able to make plans to increase the size of our workshops.
We are hopeful that the Chancellor’s budget will have a positive trickle-down effect through businesses like ourselves to the people who work and live in our local community.
