West Yorkshire’s first ever Manufacturing Task Force has added Fiona Conor, the Managing Director of Garforth-based Trust Electric Heating, to its team.
The aim of the task force is to propel local businesses towards a digital, global and green future.
The Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracey Brabin, outlined the concept in late 2021, bringing together representatives from manufacturing companies and alliances across the region to assess the manufacturing landscape and identify opportunities to support the continued growth of the sector.
The Task Force will explore best practices and find solutions to immediate and future challenges including the transition to net-zero, new trading relations and low productivity and efficiency levels, and develop an action plan with recommendations to help local businesses remain competitive.
Around the same time that the task force was established, Trust Electric Heating was named Best Domestic Electrical Heating Solutions Provider 2021 in the inaugural British Made Awards.
It also featured in 2021’s SmallBiz100, run by Small Business Saturday and was a finalist in two categories at the Entrepreneurs Circle’s National Entrepreneur Awards.
It is currently leveraging a second major funding boost from Innovate UK to continue the development and launch of the “CAVE” remote digital thermostat and is part of the University of Huddersfield managed Manufacturing Champions Programme.
Trust Electric’s Managing Director, Fiona Conor, says: “I am very proud to be working with the mayor and the rest of this talented task force team on what is a crucial set of challenges and opportunities. We need to work together to forge a bright future for the region as manufacturers and as proud business owners.
“The future is bright for manufacturing in Yorkshire. Indeed, in the coming weeks we will be announcing further expansion of our own apprentice scheme at Trust which has been fantastic for us as a business but just as critically, for helping to develop the manufacturing talent of the future, wherever their career paths lead to.”
Areas of focus for the action plan include, but are not limited to:
- Future industry skills needs
- Post-Brexit supply chains
- Increasing productivity
- Digitalisation and adoption
- Increasing innovation and research and development (R&D) activity
- Tackling the climate emergency
