Foundry casts its net wider to clinch new deals

Hargreaves Foundry, based in Halifax, plans to increase turnover from 6m to 12m by 2015 by expanding its share of the different markets in which it works.

Established in 1896, the firm is one of a handful of UK foundries and pattern makers still in full operation, keeping traditional iron-casting skills alive and kicking in Yorkshire.

The company, which employs 65 staff, supplies castings to the engineering and construction industries and is best known as a manufacturer of cast-iron drainage products.

But in the last two decades, in the face of decline, it has diversified into new markets, including sculptures for artists such as Antony Gormley.

It has just completed eight blockwork sculptures out of 10 tonnes of iron for Gormley's Test Sites exhibition, which opened at the beginning of June in London's White Cube Mason's Yard.

Made from metal melted from 100 per cent recycled scrap, Hargreaves cast the huge sculptures in its Halifax foundry pits from exacting polystyrene models designed and produced by Gormley.

Andrew Knight, foundry and patternshop business manager, said: "The challenge in this project was to retain the absolute precision of Gormley's models. These sculptures explore the relationship between architecture and man and so are all about straight, sharp lines."

The foundry first cast for Gormley in 1993 for his solo exhibition in Malmo, Sweden. Since then, it has gone on to work with other artists

and now castings for major arts projects accounts for some 40 per cent of the foundry business. Another new area for the business is lock gates.

Two years ago, the company saved Rochdale Canal workshops from closure and established Hargreaves Lock Gates, in Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, with the previous directors of the company, Nigel Lord and Richard Booth.

The specialist lock-gate manufacturing and installation company has completed a number of key contract,s including crafting and installing four new lock gates for the Grade II listed Jesus Green Lock, on Cambridge's River Cam, to mark the university's 800th anniversary.

Managing director Michael Hinchliffe said: "That side of the business is getting a great name in the industry. Turnover for the division was 200,000 last year, but we are confident of doubling that this year."

The construction side of the business has suffered in the recession and in 2009 the company had to make 18 employees redundant, but Mr Hinchliffe said there were signs that that construction was starting to pick up again.

Hargreaves has developed a joint venture in China and it sells considerable quantities of drainage pipes into the Russian market. In addition, the company has built a strong reputation in the building conservation sector and has worked on commissions for projects by English Heritage and similar bodies.

It recently completed a drainage pipe project at the Piece Hall in Halifax and in the past has also completed work for Buckingham Palace and the House of Commons.

It is now hoping to tap into the restoration market in countries such as South Africa, Canada and New Zealand.

Mr Hinchliffe said: "We have an eyes-wide-open opportunistic approach. We wouldn't be here if we hadn't diversified.

"However, we have very small shares of the markets we work in so there is lots of room to expand and taking market share from our competitors will be our focus going forward."

Foundry's firm foundations

Hargreaves Foundry has been an iron foundry since 1896, supplying castings to the engineering and construction industries.

The foundry is still in full operation.

Recent projects include the multi-million-pound redevelopment of Windrush Square, in Brixton, London, recreating cast-iron windows at south Liverpool's "pink" place of worship, the Church of St Michael in the Hamlet, and at the Garrison Chapel in Pembroke Dock, South

Wales.

Hargreaves operates a joint venture in China selling drainage pipes into the Russian market.

It supplied more than five kilometres of internal cast-iron rainwater and drainage systems for Europe's tallest skyscraper, Moscow's futuristic Federation Tower.