Booming Staffs firm steels itself for expansion drive

Former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who officially opened the new unit, with Nick Liggins of Steel Processing (Midlands) Ltd.

A booming Staffordshire steel firm has created new jobs and expects to double its turnover after investing £2 million to extend its existing manufacturing unit and grow its business

The good news comes after leading property investment firm London & Cambridge Properties (LCP) completed the bespoke extension for the steel processing company at its Burntwood base.

Steel Processing (Midlands) Ltd (SPM) says the 14,500 sq ft extension, of its existing unit at Zone 4, Burntwood Business Park, will enable it to meet increasing demand for its products and put it on target to double its turnover in 12 months.

The expansion means that the company has taken on 15 new members of staff, taking it to a total of 60. It is also on target to more than double its turnover to £40 million this financial year.

As well as agreeing to the extension LCP, which owns and manages Zone 4 of the business park, also carried out a number of improvements to the company’s existing 36,963 sq ft unit.

SPM has now committed to the business park for another 20 years after signing a new lease and investing about £2 million in their business expansion plans, including a new slitting machine.

Nick Liggins, commercial director of SPM, a privately owned steel stockholding and processing business, said: “We were running at full capacity on three shifts for some time and we had the choice to stay as we were or to put down new capacity. We took the latter decision.  This was driven by the fact that we needed to be able to maintain our excellent customer service levels whilst also having the facility to take advantage of growth opportunities.

“We’ve been at Burntwood Business Park since 1993 and were keen to stay where we were, so we worked with LCP to ensure that the extension was purpose built to our exact specification. We have now installed a Georg slitting line, which is currently being commissioned and should be fully operational by the beginning of November.”

“This is a very exciting time in our company development and we are looking forward to feeling the benefits of having this capacity fully on stream.”

Andrew Preston, industrial portfolio manager, of LCP, added: “We are delighted that our long-standing tenant Steel Processing Ltd chose to stay at Burntwood Business Park. We pride ourselves on working closely with our tenants and assisting them with their business expansion plans.”