It has been roughly a year since we last checked in with Siddall & Hilton, the largest manufacturer of industrial welded mesh and perimeter fencing panels in the UK, and it has been an eventful one for the company.
“The last financial year was a record for us. We had very good performance indeed, and that’s reflected in the financials of the business,” says Ian Thurley, Siddall & Hilton’s CEO. “The last six months have been more of a mixed bag.”
A Volatile Market
Over January and February last year Siddall & Hilton was very busy, a trend that continued into March. However, when Russia invaded Ukraine, everything changed. A large proportion of Europe’s steel came from either Russia, Ukraine, or Belarus, so with fears of a shortage abounding, prices skyrocketed.
“We’re in a price-sensitive market, so when customers see prices go up, they will lay hands on as much stock as they can at current prices,” Thurley points out. “At one point some of our suppliers were closing their order books because of the price volatility. It was a difficult period. We secured enough wire to see us through the summer because we were concerned that by the time we got to June the steel in the supply chain would dry up. We were rushed off our feet through March, April, and May. It didn’t calm down until June.”
By the end of Q1, Siddall & Hilton had already hit its half-year targets. Eventually, of course, the markets began to cool down, as alternative supply chains were established, and the initial panic subsided.
“The concerns over there being a shortage of wire later proved to be unfounded,” Thurley explains. “Steel prices began to decline, and then we had a stock of higher-priced wire. The supply chain downstream from us was filled. So, it has been a quiet summer. July and August were the quietest we’ve had for a long time and business has remained lacklustre through the Autumn when it generally picks up in September and October. That hasn’t happened this year.”
Siddall & Hilton has continued to maintain its market share, but Thurley tells us it is still too early to say if this quiet spell is still the result of a clogged supply chain that needs time to clear through, or if it is an early sign of a market downturn.
“December and January are generally slow months, so it tends to pick up in the middle of February onwards. We are hoping it will pick up by then, but at the moment we just don’t know,” Thurley says. “However, we are still going to produce a good financial result for this year despite the volume forecast to be slightly down on last year overall.”
There is no denying that it is a challenging time for any company, including Siddall & Hilton.
“We are facing severe headwinds as an industry,” Thurley admits. “A big issue for us as a high energy user is energy costs. Our total energy bill will have trebled come April, compared to our pre-pandemic costs. That is a big concern for us, so as part of the development of the site we are looking at what we can do to invest in renewable energy.”
Continued Investment
Despite the volatile economic environment, Siddall & Hilton has continued the investment programme it was embarking on when we last spoke with Thurley.
“We invested in a new mesh welding machine at the end of 2021. We have since invested in our site, putting a new roof on one of our factory buildings, while also improving insulation and lighting,” Thurley says.
“We have added a new heating system, and we have also invested half-a-million pounds in a robot addition to the welding machine we purchased last year, to speed up the offloading of the finished panels.”
The issue was that Siddall & Hilton’s new welding machine was producing panels so fast that staff had to repeatedly stop the machine so that they had time to unload it. With their new robotic helper, the welding machine is fed with pallets, which the robot stacks with mesh and straps down when it reaches the maximum limit. This used to be a manual process.
“All the lads have to do is drive it out on a forklift truck. It is a huge improvement to the process,” Thurley says.
The company is also looking into using its large, south-facing roof space for solar panel technology. While this would not generate enough power to run the firm’s machines, it can still feed energy back into the grid to offset some of its energy usage and reduce bills.
“We are also trying to use energy more efficiently through looking at motors and the drives to see if we can replace them with more efficient units,” Thurley says.
A Fresh Start
Even this is only a part of Siddall & Hilton’s far wider plans for development, with the company recently receiving planning permission to completely redevelop its site.
“We have a collection of buildings of various ages going back as far as 150 years. They are Victorian, part of an old dye works. We have received permission to demolish those and start remodelling our site to improve health and safety measures around vehicle movements and get a better process flow through the factory, with additional storage for raw materials at the start of the process,” Thurley tells us.
It is a project that will take years to complete, and Thurley is strategizing the development carefully, taking into account everything from affordability to practical factors around maintaining operational capacity in the middle of a demolition project.
“We have one machine that straddles two buildings, one of which will be demolished,” Thurley says. “We have to build a new shed around the machine and demolish the old building beneath it to maintain capacity and keep it weatherproof. Site development has been two years in the planning. We have got so many factors to bear in mind.”
As well as developing the building Siddall & Hilton continues to develop its staff.
“We have continued to recruit people, focusing on our strategic development and succession planning,” Thurley says.
The company has already recruited a financial controller, an HR assistant, and a marketing executive, with a commercial director also in the pipeline. The company has recently won two business awards. The business community of Calderdale awarded Siddall & Hilton the title of ‘SME of the year’ and ‘Business of the Year’.
“A lot is happening,” Thurley says simply. “Our plan is still to build a world-class business. We have made a start with the refurbishment of a key area of the factory. We have added a new roof, painted the floors, and overhauled and refurbished one of our older machines. We are also developing our training proposition for employees with a path that they can follow to boost their own earnings through gaining additional skills and qualifications. We aim to improve our efficiencies and drive the business forward to be the best it can be at making mesh.”
