Dr Caroline Johnson MP visits Shipley Structures

03/08/2022

Category: General

On the 14 July, amid the drama of the Tory leadership race, Dr Caroline Johnson MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham and Minister for Education (at the time of writing), visited Shipley Structures, one of the BCSA long standing members.

Wendy Coney, Executive Chairman of Shipley Structures, welcomed Dr Johnson and gave an overview of the company and its capabilities.

Shipley is a family-run firm, with Wendy at the helm for the last 40 years, taking over from her father. Over that time, the company has evolved and innovated, and was perhaps one of the first to install computerised take-off programs, which was built bespoke for them back in the MS-DOS days.

Dr Johnson was keen to hear about the number of locally employed staff and about such a thriving business, producing structural steelwork for buildings all across the UK, that she had no idea was right under her nose!

Wendy commented "It is encouraging to have a visit from our local MP and to be able to demonstrate the thriving industry within the constituency. BCSA is working hard with government to improve the opportunities for manufacturing in the country and it is good to be able to demonstrate our abilities first hand to our elected MP".

Mitch Weston, Managing Director of Shipley, then gave Dr Johnson a tour of the factory, explaining the process from start to finish.

Dr Johnson was introduced to employees running millions of pounds worth of machinery, including new automated saw/drill lines and operating plasma machines to ensure the most efficient outputs, accuracy and reaction times. She brought up the subject of education and recruiting new workers into the business. Mitch explained that this is an issue the constructional steelwork industry faces across the UK. Despite a great deal of automation across the site, highly trained individuals are still required to ensure the machines run, the programmes are set correctly and carry out some manual skilled work too.

Dr Johnson spoke to the team about the apprenticeship schemes she has been working on, and although a good entry pathway into some careers, it was explained that they are not quite right for the steelwork industry, which makes it difficult to attract new talent. Moreover, it is the perception that the industry has - no doubt based on bygone days where it was very manually intensive work and seen as 'dirty'. However, she saw that it is a far cry from that now and could only see the positives in people joining the industry. The training new entrants would receive and the satisfaction of contributing to creating some of the UKs most iconic architecture and buildings.

Dr Caroline Johnson MP said: "I was pleased to recently visit Shipley Structures in Ancaster to learn more about their work and the opportunities they are bringing to the community.

"I was welcomed by Mitch (Managing Director) and Wendy (Executive Chairman) alongside Zoe (Marketing Manager) from the BCSA. Whilst touring the site we spoke about the impressive and notable projects they have worked on, recruitment into manually skilled jobs, the upskilling of employees as technology develops and the ways in which the business is adapting to make sure they are as efficient and effective as possible.

"I was particularly impressed by the pride they take in their practical work, and their desire to continue supporting and training staff as technology and processes develop."

Other issues the industry is facing were discussed, with Mitch Weston talking about the exponential rise in steel prices, not the fault of inflation per se, but partly as a consequence of the tariffs and quotas being imposed on steel being imported into the UK.

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