Cablescan's electrifying growth

30/06/2010

A BEVERLEY based electrical engineering company has seen massive growth this year after obtaining a landmark accreditation.

Cablescan Ltd, who are based at the Tokenspire Business Park in Woodmansey, manufacture electric assemblies for the military and aerospace industries.

The firm, which employs 84 people in Woodmansey and 11 in Holland, obtained an SC21 Bronze award in June last year.

The SC1 is a trusted top-tier qualification for any company wishing to supply the aerospace and defence sectors.

There are only 21 companies in the UK which currently have SC1 gold, silver or bronze awards.

Since gaining the accreditation Cablescan have seen their business balloon.

The company has taken on 30 people this year and expects to increase its turnover from £2.2m to about £4m this year.

Richard Willis, director of Cablescan who launched the company in 1994, said: "The SC1 means your delivery and performance is 99 per cent, your quality performance is 99 per cent.

"Once you have the SC1 People know you're a top quality company so you don't have to spend time convincing them.

"Getting our SC1 has opened a lot more doors for us in the aerospace area."

Cablescan had to work hard to reach SC1 level after registering for the award in 2007.

Mr. Willis said: "We had to change various business processes, taking out waste, improving the efficiency and taking more market share."

Cablescan moved into a 4000sq ft premises at the Tokenspire Business Park in 2004.

It transferred into a 9,626 sq ft site later that year and set up a factory in Holland in 2005.

This year the firm doubled the size of its occupancy to 19,073 sq ft in a deal overseen by Dale Gooderham at Garness Jones.

Mr. Willis said: "We do a lot for the military which involved urgent operational requirements (UOR) which means we need to react to things very quickly if the military come to us with an order.

"That means we need a bigger stock holdings and we needed a bigger factory to store this."

The company carries out work for leading defence contractors such as General Dynamics as well as a number of local businesses.

Cablescan's first order came from the multi-million pound Melton-based generator manufacturer Allam Marine.

Mr. Willis said: "Our break was when Allam Marine gave us an order of electrical cables and I am proud to say they're still a good customer."

Mr. Willis claims he has always invested the main bulk of profit back into the business.

He places a big emphasis on staff training and currently has the majority of his staff enrolled on an NVQ course in Business Improvement Techniques at Hull College.

Mr. Willis said: "We've just been awarded Investors in the People status.

"We were originally given Investors in the People in 2004 and were reassessed for it earlier this month."

Links:

Garness Jones

www.garnessjones.co.uk

Cablescan

www.cablescan.co.uk