Double contract for OSI ensures stability

Steve Dickinson, owner and founder of the Barnsley-based £2m turnover firm, said the two contracts would ensure the stability of the business over the next few months.

Within the space of a few days, OSI was awarded a £77,000 contract with construction firm Morgan Sindall to supply the furniture for the new Whitechapel School, in Cleckheaton, near Bradford, where the school system is being reorganised, and a £66,000 contract with Interserve to supply the furniture for a new building being constructed to house the existing Primrose Hill School in Leeds.

Both new builds are due to open in September.

Mr Dickinson said his efforts to diversify the customer base of the company to encompass the education sector, when the recession hit in 2008, has paid off.

Public sector organisations such as councils were cutting back, meaning less business for OSI, he explained. “So rather than die, we have totally adapted the company and looked at new markets. From nil four years ago, I’d now say that 50 per cent of our customer base now is schools,” said Mr Dickinson.

The remaining 50 per cent includes Rotherham Council, Leeds City Council, Leeds City College, Miller Homes and Leeds-based System Training, which hail from markets in which OSI traditionally operated.

Mr Dickinson, who set up OSI in Barnsley in 1993, said the firm’s recent order wins are vital for the business. “Within three days we had got those two huge orders. It’s incredible. That keeps the workforce in jobs. We have never had anyone made redundant here during the recession, although over the last two years no-one has had a pay rise. This time we can actually give staff a pay rise.”

However, the education sector brings its own challenges. “There are 1,500 schools in Yorkshire, of which 1,400 have got no money. We have to go and find the 100 that have. It’s incredibly hard work. You get a phenomenal amount of knock-backs”, said Mr Dickinson. But he added: “There are new schools being built out there, you just have to find them.”

OSI sources the majority of its products from UK manufacturers, with office furniture coming from Blackburn, chairs made in Northampton and plastic tables hailing from a Barnsley firm.

The company’s financial year came to an end last month, and saw the firm record a turnover of around £2m, with pre-tax profits of £82,000, up from £37,000 the year before, on a similar turnover.

Mr Dickinson said doing business in the current economic climate is challenging.

“There’s less business for the same number of suppliers. Margins are getting squeezed. And it’s very competitive anyway,” he remarked.

But he added: “To be fair, if we stay as we are in a declining market and in the recession I think it’s very positive.” And being a small business has its benefits as the overheads are not as high as they might be for big firms, he said, while OSI is debt free.

Originally from Warrington, Mr Dickinson moved to Yorkshire in 1985 when he took his first job as a sales representative. At the age of 29 he started OSI, initially working from home before moving to a rental property and then buying the firm’s current premises.

“Barnsley has been very good to us. You have fairly low costs per square foot rental. But you can be in the major commerce centres of Leeds and Sheffield in half an hour”, said Mr Dickinson.

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