Bird Stevens & Co. has been named as the first winner of the Express and Star Manufacturing Excellence Award which has been set up to honour long standing firms that continue the industrial tradition of the West Midlands. Each winner of the award must have been established for more than 75 years yet have been able to adapt to modern times through innovation and diversification.

Managing Director, Steve Ruston, said "We are really grateful for the support of our workforce in the way they have worked to help develop the business through this very difficult recession. This award will encourage us to continue to do our part in maintaining a strong manufacturing presence in the area".

The photo shows Professor Carl Chinn presenting the award to Financial Director, Nicola Priest, with Steve Ruston, Huw Jenkins of the Manufacturing Advisory Service and employees of Bird Stevens.

The Express and Star article can be viewed at http://www.expressandstar.com/2010/03/02/first-winner-of ...

Supported by the Carbon Trust and with the help of energy consultants E2, stage 1 of a plan to reduce energy consumption and better manage its use, costing £48,000, has commenced. Over the next few weeks new air compressors, a computerised heating management unit and state of the art energy monitoring will be installed. The payback period has been calculated at less than two years whilst at the same time we will be doing our bit for the environment and considerably reducing our carbon footprint.

Stage 2 is planned for next year and will be centred on improving the energy consumption of the galvanizing plant by the replacement of inefficient plant and the introduction of methods of heat recovery.

The Gainsborough MkIII Nesting Trolley and Lutton Harvesting Trolley, both new products introduced into the Castlefield Range in 2009, have been nominated for excellence in the UK Horticulture Innovation awards.
For more information on our Castlefield Range go to http://www.castlefieldproducts.co.uk

The West Midland newspaper 'Express and Star' ran an editorial on Saturday 24th January 2009 under the headline 'Metal firm fighting back'. In the article they quoted Bird Steven's Managing Director, Steve Ruston, as saying:

“By offering a range of skills and operations, we have been able to broaden the work we can offer to a wider range of customers. Rather than concentrate on work for one sector, like automotive, we have protected our business by producing work for a lot of different sectors. We have only been able to do this because the workforce has been flexible enough to take on additional roles, so we can have pressworkers handling welding or galvanising. We are also putting a lot of effort into training."

"There are a lot of things we can do in this country that they can’t do overseas. For instance we can make smaller batches of components and get them to the customer quicker."

Fifteen members of staff have returned from their summer holidays enthusiastic to improve their skills by working towards achieving NVQs in Business Improvement. In house group training sessions start soon and will be complete in early 2009.

This initiative to improve workplace skills is part of the Company's strategy for the future development of the business.

The website for Castlefield Products and Eden Original has gone live and the new branding has been launched with advertisements and a short editorial in the June editions of the trade journals NFU Horticultural Journal and Horticulture Week.

The Castlefield range is already having a positive impact on Bird Stevens sales enabling us to continue to grow the business despite difficult economic conditions.

The website can be viewed at http://www.castlefieldproducts.co.uk

The acquisition of Castlefield in November has prompted the creation within the company of a new department based on the already considerable rural products range. The new County Collection division will combine the Catering for Creatures and Castlefield product ranges.

The Bird Stevens strategy of manufacturing a range of high quality standard products combined with a long established ability to collaborate with customers on customised product design will mean that the ongoing development of the Castlefield range is assured. When combined with the company's commitment to continuous improvement in all aspects of the business the benefits to our new Castlefield's customers will soon become apparent.

As a first step a new logo for Castlefield has been developed and a new website linking all the various parts of the County Collection division will become live in May.

We are delighted to announce the acquisition on 20th November of the business of Castlefield Products. Ltd..

Castlefield are well established suppliers of horticultural equipment to nurserymen and retail garden and plant centres. The range includes soft fruit harvesting trollies, sledges, barrows and field to packhouse trailers. Castlefield has a reputation in the trade for working with customers in developing custom built products to suit specific operations.

Bird Stevens are their major manufacturing partner and the products fit well with our current product range whilst creating opportunities for growth in new markets.