Major investment to support new growth in Telford
A manufacturer is promising investment in its Shropshire headquarters as the company enjoys fresh wave of innovation and growth.
Link 51, which employs 450 people on Telford's Halesfield Industrial Estate, recently revealed it was planning to introduce a new shift, creating more than 20 additional jobs at its hi-tech town manufacturing site.
It is the latest stage in the evolution of the company, whose core business of making shelving and racking for industrial uses, has spread to track-based shuttles jetting about its offices.
With customers ranging from JCB to Network Rail, from the NHS to Highlands whisky makers, the company is part of the Whittan Storage Systems Group, also based on Halesfield, which employs 750 people across its territories, and achieves sales of £150 million per year.
Now, investment is coming into the business, with a budget of £1 million per year to add to its facilities and improve production.
The storage company said it expected a strong performance to continue its forward momentum during 2014, having brought on another 25 members of staff to man an additional shift.
The latest move is at
Telford, although the company has three West Midlands factories – two on either side of the same road in Halesfield, and another plant at Brierley Hill.
Managing director John Halliday said: "The reality is that we invest heavily in our business. If we have a business initiative which we want to pursue, we fund it.
"We have the resources, and we recently put a big investment into the factory which guaranteees labour going forward, and guarantees our competitiveness.
"New machinery opens new markets for us, and we have won contracts for home and overseas business with some big national retailers in the last few months.
"Pallet racking is a highly established business, so we have been developing new products, and that has led to us developing the shuttle system.
"They are automated systems to put the pallet onto a shuttle, which then whizzes off down a rail. That enables us to secure business for Tool Bank Dartford. It's about speeding up efficiency for our customers.
"Given the competitive nature of the market, logistics can make or break a business. It has a higher profile and gains more focus than it used to."
The shuttle system is a new part of the company, flinging parts around factories at a high-speed rate and creating a vital facility for customers.
The company's excitement in the development of the product lies in the fact that it could substantially cut down activity times on factory floors, radically improving efficiencies.
Now the company hopes to see its impact roll out among its customers, despite the last year having clocked in slightly below expectations.
"Our business growth plan was in the region of 10 per cent this year, and we have been slightly below that," Mr Halliday said.
"Pallet racking will be more than 10 per cent ahead, lockers about 10 per cent, and shelving a little behind that.
"Government activity is down, and that's why shelving is down. It's still a very big sector, and we have won a big award, in the form of a framework agreement which ensures we are part of that sector.
"While we have talked about manufacturing logistics, the range of sectors we can approach is almost limitless."
