A COMPANY celebrating 40 years of success has ambitious plans for the future.
Salamander Fabrications, based at Slaithwaite, has expanded its premises and invested in new equipment to help it respond more quickly to customer needs.
And it is forecasting “an extremely busy” 2013 with more projects in the pipeline to streamline its operations.
The company, founded in 1973 by Huddersfield-born Brian Haskell, started in a modest way with just three employees working from premises not much bigger than a modern double garage.
Its first contract was to supply a mobile canteen to Derbyshire police. The firm continued to supply catering equipment – mainly mobile canteens and fish and chip ranges.
In 1983, Salamander became the first company in the UK to buy an automatic indexing punch capable of punching different profiles out of sheet metal up to 6mm in thickness.
Today the firm employs 35 people with a wide variety of skills, including skilled welders, CNC machine operators, 3D CAD designers, technical sales, electro-mechanical assemblers and powder coating paint sprayers who all have a wealth of shop floor experience.
Following the death of Brian Haskell, the company has been restructured. His son Michael is now managing director and has put a management team in place to drive the company forward.
Salamander now subcontracts for a wide variety of industries, including automotive, rail, agricultural, construction, banking, shopfitting, vending equipment, catering equipment and street furniture.
Recent investment includes a 900sq metres shopfloor extension to house a new high tech laser cutting machine.
The machine allows very accurate cutting of a range of metals with unprecedented output. It also has an automatic loading system which enables it to run for up to eight hours unaided.
The investment means Salamander can react very quickly to customers’ requirements – from initial concept and design to the final product being delivered to the door.
The investment has given the company extra capacity in the profiling of metals and brought an increase in the volume of work to all areas of the business – leading the firm to recruit more shopfloor and office staff.
Salamander is aiming for continued growth over the next five years to secure current jobs and create new ones.
Mr Haskell said: “We will continue to work with our current customers, delivering quality products on time, but also look to expand our customer base by showing what a great service Salamander fabrications can offer.
“The next year is going to be extremely busy for us as a business with lots of internal projects to streamline the way in which we work, ensuring that we can provide our customers old and new with an unrivalled one stop shop for all sheet metal requirements.”
