44 | JANUARY 2019
Business
Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk
STEDEK SALES DIRECTOR: “I’VE
NO DOUBT WE’LL BECOME
BRITAIN’S BEST FABRICATOR”
This month, Stedek Sales
Director Richard Hammond talks
to MAG about how and why he
joined the fast-growing Midlands
fabricator.
Richard, thanks for talking to
us! First up, could you tell us a
bit about life before Stedek?
I entered the industry back in
2006. I started out working as a
sales rep at one of the UK’s big-
gest hardware suppliers. It was an
excellent way of getting to know
the sector very quickly – travel-
ling the country, meeting all kinds
of different window businesses,
learning how they worked.
But what struck me even in the
first few weeks on the job was
how different businesses doing
the exact same thing could be.
To an industry outsider, that
didn’t make much sense. A fabrica-
tor is a fabricator – they assemble
windows. Surely, I thought, that
means they should all be essential-
ly the same?
It didn’t take long for me to
realise that couldn’t be further
from the truth. I was shocked by
how much the businesses I visited
could vary – some were clean and
efficient, some were messy and
shambolic, some were passionate
about their work and valued their
GLAZERITE’S ANNUAL
RACE NIGHT RAISES
SMILES FOR CHARITY
The Glazerite UK Group Ltd’s
annual charity Race Evening
took place on 16th November,
with over 140 guests joining the
fabricator for the fun-filled event.
Held at the Wolverhampton Race-
course for the third successive
year, the evening kicked off with
the horseracing, followed by a
three-course meal and a disco, all
courtesy of VEKA’s leading trade
fabricator, Glazerite.
Employees from the Welling-
borough-based firm welcomed
customers and suppliers from the
length and breadth of the UK for
the annual event, which this year
raised nearly £600 for The Lewis
Foundation. The charity supplies
gift packs for patients undergoing
cancer treatment in and around
hospitals local to Northampton-
shire.
K2 Aluminium Systems’ Liam
Bird and his wife Paula were
delighted to meet leading lady
jockey, Hayley Turner OBE on the
night. Liam says: “Hayley was rid-
ing the Queen’s horse, Eightsome
Reel, at the meet and it was really
interesting to meet her.”
Meanwhile Glazerite’s very own
Cassie Macdonald hit a winning
streak, thanks to her equine name-
sake, Castle Hill Cassie, coming
first past the post.
www.glazerite.co.uk
customers, others just saw them as
entries in the order book.
It meant I got very good at
separating the wheat from the
chaff – and that when I eventually
encountered Stedek for the first
time, I could immediately tell it
was something special.
How did you first come across
the company?
It feels surreal when I look back
now - for a time I was Stedek’s
sales rep! It wasn’t until later that
everything would come into align-
ment, and I’d join the firm. But it
left a big impression.
Of all the customers I worked
with as a hardware salesman,
Stedek was the best. There was no
contest. A lot of my clients were
excellent firms, in business for the
right reasons, offering their in-
stallers a great service. But Stedek
were committed to quality to an
extent I’d never seen before.
They’d been going for years
– they started as a small family
manufacturer making windows for
their own installations in 1994 –
but they’d never lost sight of that
family business, customers-first
ethos. It’s obviously something I
learned a lot more about when I
eventually joined!
After working in hardware for
eight years, I moved to become
sales director at a window fabrica-
tor in 2014. Moving sectors within
the industry was a tough move -
and I didn’t find the right business
to move to initially. Later in 2014,
the opportunity to join Stedek
came up, and the rest, as they say,
is history…
www.stedek.co.uk
TuffX Expands Manufacturing Facility
Following impressive growth
and as part of a long-term strategy
to increase production capacity,
glass processing specialist, TuffX,
has announced that it has expand-
ed its Knowsley manufacturing
facility.
The Merseyside based company
has recently taken on an addi-
tional 20,000ft2 unit, that adjoins
its existing 55,000ft2 factory,
creating an impressive 75,000ft2
space dedicated to quality glass
manufacture. This extra space
will house one of the company’s
three laminating lines alongside a
third, additional glass cutting line,
a second digital printing machine
and a new state of the art Bovone
ELB 12 HS straight line edging
machine.
The £200,000 Bovone straight
line edger is the second machine
of its type at TuffX and is designed
to produce flat and arisse profile.
Capable of processing four metres
of glass a minute, it will allow
TuffX to stay ahead of anticipated
future demand by producing a
greater volume of product, while
still retaining a market leading
quality of finish.
As well as the new machinery
and additional laminating and
cutting lines, the expanded factory
will also enable TuffX to optimise
the layout of its existing facilities,
not to mention create space for
more glass cutting equipment in
the near future.
TuffX Operations Director, John
Tierney, commented: “The addition
of almost 50 per cent more space
is fantastic news for TuffX as not
only does it allow us to house
new machinery, but it gives us the
perfect opportunity to re-organise
the current factory layout so that
we can be as efficient as possible.
We’ve been gearing up for growth
and we now have the infrastruc-
ture in place to be able to deliv-
er on expected demand going
forward.”
http://www.tuffxglass.co.uk/