Redshield Engineering

“As a growing business, we knew what we should be doing but lacked the time and focus to plan strategically for the future. Krys was able to take a step back from the day-to-day issues we faced and coached us into a more structured way of working. Despite some major set-backs over the past few months we now approach the future with renewed optimism. We have learnt to prioritise and think strategically about everything we do, which has opened the door to new opportunities, particularly with regard to staff training.”
Paul Dearden, owner.

COMPANY PROFILE

19 employees, £1.3m turnover, based in Bradford

Redshield Engineering manufactures a wide range of bespoke fabricated and machined components, brackets, structural fasteners, window sills and insulated panels to the construction industry.

The company concentrates particularly in external window systems and entrances and in more recent years, has developed business in supplying and installing complete glazing systems into doors and windows for commercial buildings.

Background

Redshield was acquired in 2002 by the current owners, husband and wife team Paul Dearden and Tracey Butterfield. Back then, the company was located in a small workshop on an old run down industrial estate, employing just 10 people. Although not from the industry, Paul and Tracey carried out considerable market research prior to the acquisition and identified considerable growth potential.

They began to grow the business quickly and within 3 years had virtually doubled its turnover. Space within the existing premises was holding them back so they started the search for a larger factory with greater office capacity.

Having worked with the Manufacturing Advisory Service to develop a structured planning and scheduling system, Paul Dearden was able to recognise the benefits of taking advantage of longer term external support. He therefore seized the opportunity to be part of the High Growth Coaching pilot scheme to receive managerial guidance from an experienced coach.

High growth coach Krys Szokalo helped Paul and Tracey identify a number of areas to be addressed if the company’s growth ambitions were to be fulfilled. The key issues included

• Managing complexity and learning to prioritise
• Reorganising the company structure, establishing key roles and responsibilities as new people joined the company
• Developing structured systems, procedures and disciplines in all business processes
• Improving the skills and knowledge of key employees
• Completing the factory relocation in reasonable time without major disruption to daily activities
• Assessing whether the existing powder coating facility should be relocated or replaced by a new plant

Making it Happen

To begin the programme of work, High Growth Coach Krys Szokalo spent a few days helping to put together a 12 month action plan with specific responsibilities and tasks for both Paul and Tracey and other key members of staff. Krys then mentored the teams’ monthly management meetings to review current performance, progress with actions from the plan and conduct individual one to one reviews. These sessions were intended to help guide the owners into good management practice.

Significant progress was made but, as expected with a tightly resourced business, some delays were experienced as the odd crisis occurred. The final completion of the relocation in particular resulted in ‘all hands to the pumps’, which sidetracked the team temporarily from focusing on the plan.

One of the major targets for Krys was to guide the company into looking at the bigger picture, assessing priorities and thinking strategically about everything they do; as opposed to reacting immediately to every problem that came along.

In the summer of 2007 the company hit a rock when the key contracts and project installation manager left together with 6 other Redshield employees, leaving the company in an extremely difficult situation.

Following a strategic review with Krys, the decision was taken to withdraw from the installation business altogether and concentrate solely on manufacturing. It was felt that competing head-on with specialist installation businesses did not fit with Redshield’s long-term, particularly as their margins often tended to suffer when things went wrong during an installation.

The effect of this decision was a forecast £750k loss of turnover (almost 50% of annual turnover) that would need to be recovered in finding manufacture only contracts. This crisis resulted in a temporary but significant step back in the company’s growth plans. For the following 6 months ‘all hands were on the pumps’ trying to deal with outstanding client issues, recruiting new people and chasing new work to grow the component fabrication side of the business and restore turnover.

By the beginning of 2008, the effects of the previous summer were behind them, and Paul and Tracey are now back on track trying to build the business for the future; armed with better management skills, disciplines, procedures and a more structured approach to their daily lives.

“Both Paul and myself have learnt to consider the bigger picture rather than getting so bogged down dealing with day-to-day crises. Krys gave us the discipline we needed to concentrate on growing the business and putting our ideas into practice.”
Tracey Butterfield, owner.

Key Achievements

As a result of the High Growth Coaching Scheme, Redshield has achieved the following significant improvements:

• Turnover has increased by over 50% since the start of the programme – way above the 20% target growth, despite significant setbacks.
• 6 new people have been recruited (to replace those that left in summer 2007) and 1 new job has been created to date.
• A range of management control systems and procedures have been introduced including order quoting, order intake, planning, administration and regular management meetings with agreed actions and reviews.
• The owners are currently undertaking leadership training through Train to Gain to improve time management and self organisation skills