Drawn seeing strength return to market

The Leeds-based company has been a specialist in shopfront design and innovation for 87 years for retailers including Banana Republic, Ferrari, Tiffany & Co and Apple Store.

The company lost more than a third of its £10m turnover and halved its workforce to 50 during the recession but managing director Robert Copping said now was the time to build the business back up again.

He is hoping to achieve 10 per cent growth in turnover this year to £7m and is in the process of recruiting a business development manager.

“We’re starting to see the market come back out of the doldrums,” he said. “London is very busy at the moment. We’re in the process of appointing a business development manager for the South and we’re re-employing into the design and estimating departments because we’re starting to see the commercial side start to move again.”

He added: “As a business we’re not hell bent on growth. £15m would be a nice target to achieve and be steady at. That is where we want to be further down the road.

“London in particular is on a bit of a boom and I think the major chains are getting themselves organised for an influx of visitors for the Olympics this year.

“Traditionally, the company hasn’t done very much in the Yorkshire area and that’s something we’re trying to concentrate on to improve our performance in the local market place.”

The Drawn Metal group has two companies: Drawn Metal and DML Architectural Systems, which concentrates on bigger projects.

The company has manufactured most of the bronze clad entrances in Regent Street for retailers including Calvin Klein, Guess and Lacoste.

Mr Copping said: “They are very strict on the planning controls in London in those areas, so it’s a good sector for us.”

It has also expanded into other sectors. Recently completed projects include a £350,000 project at Rotherham College of Arts and Technology and Building Schools for the Future projects in Barnsley and Grimsby.

It also worked on a large social housing development in Elephant and Castle. “We fabricated everything in Leeds and shipped it complete for putting on to the building so they didn’t have to scaffold the building,” said Mr Copping.

Before the recession, Drawn Metal completed a number of large shopping centres including Bristol Broadmead, St David’s in Cardiff. It is currently working on the glazing for a large new shopping centre in Yorkshire.

Its largest project to date is the £20m three-year contract for the Scottish Parliament building facade in Edinburgh in the early 2000s. “It was a massive jump from the retail sector,” said Mr Copping. “The architects came to us because they wanted stainless steel on oak for the windows. Then along came 9/11 and we had to make them all bomb-proof. So the thing grew enormously.”

Drawn Metal uses a range of metals including stainless steel, brass, bronze, and aluminium. “When I joined the company in 1999 we primarily worked on stainless steel and now stainless steel is out of vogue with architects and everything we’re doing in the retail sector is all bronze. It’s come back with a vengeance,” said Mr Copping.

Mr Copping said one of the biggest challenges for the company was the stability of the market place. “We don’t have any concerns about our ability to meet what the market requires, it’s just whether what we’re seeing now is sustainable or not,” he said.

Retaining skills is also a challenge. Mr Copping said: “One of the problems we have today is keeping apprentices because health and safety doesn’t allow them to use some of our machines until they are 19 years old.

“At 19 they want to be earning a decent living but you can’t pay them a decent wage unless they are producing something in the factory and there’s a bit of a dilemma there.”

Showing its mettle

Drawn Metal was founded in 1924 and traditionally manufactured shop fronts for the shopfitting industry. In recent times it has expanded into full building facades and works with major contractors including Laing O’Rourke and Balfour Beatty on projects for the retail, commercial, residential and educational sectors.

The Drawn Metal group has two companies: Drawn Metal and DML Architectural Systems. Drawn Metal starts with basic materials, such as sheet metal and timber, and forms the sections itself. Architectural Systems brings in aluminium sections formed by other companies and then fabricates and installs it on construction sites in the UK.