Brighouse-based Siddall and Hilton Products has been recognised as one of the UK’s best companies to work for, achieving one star accreditation for the ‘world-class employee engagement’ of its 60-strong workforce.
It was ranked amongst the top 10 manufacturing companies, the top 50 companies in the Yorkshire & Humber region and the top 75 small companies in the UK.
The company, previously been given a ‘one to watch’ rating, once again took part in the nationally recognised and respected ‘Best Companies’ scheme which is a standard of excellence for UK businesses. The initiative assesses workplace engagement and measures it against the rigorous Best Companies Index score, which covers factors such as leadership, wellbeing and personal growth, in order to celebrate and showcase outstanding employers.
Chief Exec Ian Thurley said: “Since the MBO three years ago, the business has undergone a transformation with significant investment in equipment and process improvements, along with cultural change aimed at empowering our team and ensuring that they come along with us on our growth journey. To have been recognised by such a prestigious national scheme as a company which is ‘very good to work for’ is a real achievement, showing that we have been able to create a highly engaged and committed team.”
After putting in a resilient performance amid the pandemic disruption of 2020/21, Siddall and Hilton Products also returned a strong financial performance for the year ending 31 March 2022, achieving a turnover of £25.3m, although this was, in part, a reflection of the sharp increase in global steel prices following the pandemic and then accelerated by the war in Ukraine.
Having made its largest investment in more than 12 years with the addition of a fifth specialist welding machine as well as recruiting a number of new mesh operators, the company saw overall operating efficiency drop slightly in the first half of the year as operators were trained on the new machine and early teething problems were ironed out, but this showed significant improvement over the final six months.
For the year ending March 2022, the company recorded a step change in operating efficiency, whilst scrap reduced by over 7% which helped to drive pre-tax profits to £4.6m, despite its operations and raw material supply chain being adversely impacted by Covid-related staff absences and HGV driver shortages.
Mr Thurley added: “It’s fantastic to see the business going from strength to strength and, since the 2019 MBO, we have been committed to ensuring that we share the company’s success with our loyal team. 2021/22 has been no different with every employee receiving a significant profit-related bonus. We felt that this was not only well-deserved, but was also important to help with the cost-of-living crisis faced by our staff.
“The company is about to embark on a hugely ambitious strategic programme to grow and diversify the business, with the aim of creating a high-performing, sustainable business that is set to provide secure and rewarding employment for many generations to come.”
