Metallicus

Sparks Fly as Yorkshire Businesswoman Takes a New Direction.

In an ordinary –looking factory in Brighouse West Yorkshire, sparks are flying – in every sense!

The factory is home to Park Welding – an old established and family run sheet metal and fabrication manufacturing business. Park Welding pride themselves on being able to tackle any project in metal – from ornamental gates to municipal Christmas decorations.  The team of ten skilled workers are also noted for more unusual one-off jobs – such as repairs to fish frying ranges and wheelchairs.  And unusually for this line of work, the business is run by a woman – Anne Thomas. 

In 2004, Anne spotted the potential for a diversification and began to explore the possibility of making top quality garden furniture. This would use her employees’ skills in another context and help her to develop a new range of products. A new business – Metallicus – came into being.

Anne said:

“I’m a woman in what is, overwhelmingly, a man’s world.  And I passionately believe in keeping manufacturing alive in this part of West Yorkshire.   Park Welding has a great reputation and is going from strength to strength, but I saw the Metallicus diversification as a way of securing the future of the business.”

Using her employees’ skills and teaming up with a furniture designer, a range of top quality, garden furniture, water features and planters was produced.  The furniture has a sparkly metallic finish and looks sleek and modern.  A clever design innovation has been to use extra strong magnets to attach cushions to the seating, and the planters to a frame – so they can be moved and re-arranged easily. 

Anne approached UKTI at West Yorkshire Business Link for advice on developing the business, and teamed up with the International Trade Adviser Gill Greaves. With the help of a grant from the Targeted Export Support Scheme, she took the Metallicus range the international ‘Urban Gardens’ show at Olympia in 2005 where it attracted huge interest. The garden designer Diarmuid Gavin particularly loved the products.

Anne said:

“ I simply could not have afforded to attend the Olympia show without the TESS grant.  It made a huge impact and a great launching pad for our new products. We were especially pleased with the results. We also got a lot of media interest   – including pieces in The Evening Standard, Gardens Monthly and The Times Saturday supplement.”

So far her main customers have been hotels, restaurants, architects and garden designers, and she is continuing to pursue the possibilities of developing the overseas market, and has been on UKTI’s Passport to Export programme to help shape her plans.

She added:

“There is a lot of practical help and support out there.  As well as Passport to Export I’ve also found that attending events such as the International Business Network incredibly useful.   UKTI have helped to shape my plans and thinking for the future direction of Metallicus.   I’d definitely recommend any company looking at developing an overseas market to contact them.”

Gill Greaves commented:

“Working with Anne has been a real pleasure - it’s very satisfying to follow a project like this from the first concept to successful business.  We’re now looking at doing further research on her target markets using the UKTI market selection service via the British Embassy network overseas.”