Shufflebottom’s Top 10 Highlights 2023
Yet again, 2023 has seen Shufflebottom’s exciting and on-going story of success continue in all aspects of our business. The countless steel-framed buildings we delivered and the tonnages of structural steel underpinned the futures of our customers in the agricultural, industrial and commercial sectors. We have, as importantly, strived to take our social, corporate and charity responsibilities very seriously and also our investment in staff training and apprenticeships, as recognised in our many awards garnered this year.
What follows are ten of our 2023 highlights selected from many more.
Awards came thick and fast during 2023 with not one, but five short-listings in the RIDBA Building Awards 2023, with us taking the winner’s crown for Training at the Awards Ceremony in September; a short-listing in the GAGA Construction Awards 2023 for the innovative Merthyr Tydfil Bus Station project with our partner, Morgan Sindall; as well as a RoSPA Award, and the KIER Wales Award for SHE in the autumn. Yet more silverware, glassware and certificates for our display cabinets at our Cross Hands HQ!
Being re-commissioned is always a satisfying marker of us being seen as a quality construction business. We were therefore thrilled, yet again, to be selected as the supplier of choice for a commercial project for Morgan Sindall to deliver the structural steelwork for three, state-of-the art schools in Rhondda Cynon Taf
In April, as part of the Tilbury Douglas Team, we were proud to visit Ysgol-y-Graig Community Primary School as illustration of our commitment to enhancing local communities and informing future generations about work in construction, evidence that the delivery of steel work for the redevelopment of the Prince Charles Hospital is more than just ‘bricks and mortar’
We were very proud to again be commissioned by our long-standing client, Malpross Services, to be part of the supply chain to re-develop a £4 million hub for Wales & West Utilities, Bristol, for whom we manufactured and supplied a state-of the-art steel-framed building. It is always great to be part of a team committed to a greener future
We continued our support of a range of Cancer charities: In support of Macmillan Cancer, Shufflebottom Director, Alex Shufflebottom achieved a personal ambition and completed the Gower Mighty Hike in July. And in support of Prostate Cancer Cymru, Shufflebottom teed off at a charity golf day at the wonderful Machynys Peninsula Golf Club in early June. It was a successful fund-raising event and to date we have raised almost £10,000 for this cause which is close to our heart. Our JustGiving page is still open… www.justgiving.com/shuffsprostatecymru As a company we aim to embrace equity in the workforce. With that to the fore, both men and women in our #teamofsteel here at Cross Hands ‘went pink’ as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month October 2023 on 18th October to listen to the expertise shared with us all from long-standing charity, Tenovus Cymru. You can read the full story on this blog section tinyurl.com/298ckmrw/link
We delivered our seventh agricultural steel-framed building in seven years to our local and long-standing customer, Wallington Farms in Hertfordshire. We added to our growing presence on the ground in Lovely Leicestershire with the delivery of a steel-framed agricultural storage building for Mr Max Marshall of Wood View Farm, adding to our portfolio of agricultural buildings in the county for Somerby Farm and Farmer Barnes’ Dairy. It is a source of great pride to us that we have so much repeat business and that our steel-framed buildings are part of the rural landscape across the UK – testament to the quality of our product and our people
Our people are our greatest asset at Shufflebottom and we have 84 full time employees and sub-contractors. In April 2023, we started to shine a light on our wonderful #teamofsteel by placing 3 members, every month, in the spotlight and sharing their attributes and skills on social media (and their wonderful photographs!). You can catch up with our focus so far by scrolling through our blog page
Up there as a key highlight, must be our involvement with the ground-breaking Pentre Awel in Llanelli. As a Carmarthenshire business it is fantastic to be working with Bouygues UK on this high profile multi-million-pound development being delivered by Carmarthenshire County Council that has already seen us supply 1,300 tonnes of steel work for the Zone 1 development. For more on this story, please visit our blog and keep an eye out for news as it comes!
As ever, 2023 has been a time to grow and expand. We are pleased to announce that we have strengthened our well-respected Structural Engineering Department with the addition of John Alimi from Nigeria who joins Chartered Engineer, Steve Magness, and Graduate Engineer, Mary Mareena James, who will now be able to offer structural engineering expertise and services to outside shed builders who have historically found it difficult to locate and buy in these skills. These skills include the preparation of design calculations and connection designs for structural steelwork as well as the detailing of structural steelwork in accordance with project specification and details
2023 saw us translate our story of success to date bringing it together consistently and coherently across our digital and print marketing mix. On St David’s Day on 1st March we launched our brand new website which translates what we do and the way we do it in an easy to navigate and exciting format, showcasing a selection of our latest projects across the three sectors we serve. At the Royal Welsh Show in July, we launched our new corporate film, which in less than three minutes tells the story of Shufflebottom’s products, processes and people to customers and prospective customers. And at the time of writing, we’re just erecting an innovative and celebratory Time Line graphic installation in our HQ foyer here at Cross Hands that will present visitors with Shufflebottom’s story of growth and success from 1977 to the present day and its strategic positioning for the future…
None of our success would happen without our customers, our suppliers, our partners, or our staff. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda. And we very much hope that all those mentioned will continue to be part of our story as we look forward to 2024.