Mayflower sails into new areas to beat downturn

The Sheffield-based company, which traditionally provided design, manufacturing, installation and commissioning services to a blue chip customer base including Corus, Outokumpu, Caterpillar and Siemens, has now moved into sectors including sub-sea, off-shore, wave to energy, nuclear, rail, river and canal gates and bridges, military vehicles and waste recycling.

The business underwent a management buyout in 2008 led by managing director Kevan Bingham and operations director Glyn Hobson.

The deal represented the first change of ownership for Mayflower since its formation in 1974. The business employed 82 people and generated annual sales of more than £8m from its 38,000 sq ft base in Sheffield.

But following the deal, the company was immediately faced with the full impact of the banking crisis, which it said resulted in a near complete withdrawal of capital funding from the marketplace.

The company’s biggest client was Corus, a subsidiary of Tata Steel and Europe’s second largest steel producer, responsible for up to 45 per cent of Mayflower’s business.

When the downturn accelerated and Corus was hit by the global recession it cancelled all its orders with Mayflower, a move that was swiftly copied by another major client.

Facing a massive fall in sales, Mayflower had to lay off a third of its workforce.

The company faced a bleak future but the new management team devised a strategy to face the difficulties head-on, by diversifying into new markets which could play to Mayflower’s strengths.

The new approach has led to new business wins in niche sectors and, in September 2010, its monthly orders were the highest for two years.

New contracts include a £1.4m deal to design and build three new autoclaves for waste management firm Sterecycle.

Mr Hobson said: “This is just one of a number of projects we have won following our decision to target new markets.

“It shows how if a business has the right skills and a strategy in place to succeed, that even the toughest economic conditions can be overcome”.

The first of three new waste processing autoclaves has been assembled and tested at Mayflower Engineering’s plant assembly workshops in Rotherham.

The contract was secured last year, Mr Hobson said, against stiff competition and will replace the two existing vessels at the Sterecycle Waste Recycling Plant in Rotherham in early 2012, substantially increasing its processing capacity.

Mr Hobson, said “We are very pleased in how the design and development of the new rotating, pivoting, heated, pressure vessel has been undertaken in close collaboration with Sterecycle’s engineers to produce an autoclave to the highest construction and safety standards and capable of meeting Sterecycle’s operational demands at the Rotherham site for the next 25 years.”

Although the company made a number of redundancies during its most difficult period, at the same time it invested in additional sales staff, a new marketing strategy and gained a quality standard in welding – the BS EN ISO 3834 Welding Quality Standard – something held by less than 30 companies in the UK.

The company now employs over 65 specialist staff and is on target to achieve a £7.5m turnover this financial year.

Mayflower, which is based in Coleridge Road, specialises in bespoke, one-off designs and offers design, fabrication machining, assembly and testing services.

It also takes on work on a fast track basis, undertaking both design and specialist fabrication 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The company is part of ‘Made in Sheffield’, a symbol of the city’s ongoing commitment to excellence.

Mr Hobson said: “Most other companies have either got designers or you’ve got manufacturers. You haven’t got too many people that can do the full range.

“What makes us different is that we can offer a client a speciality where there is complex fabrication and machining.

“That’s what we can offer both from a design point of view and a manufacturing point of view.”

He added: “What we’re selling is that higher level, full-turn key capability with a lower cost base and made in Sheffield does seem to mean something to people.”

THE ART OF ENGINEERING

For over 20 years, Mayflower Engineering has worked with a variety of artists, architects and local authorities in the design, manufacture and installation of a range of sculptures across the UK.

The firm provides sculpture designs through 3D modelling, manufacturing from stainless steels, mild steels, special steels and coatings and non metallics.

Projects over the years include the leaves sculpture at Doncaster Business Park, the Pinnacle at Crystal Peaks Shopping Centre in Sheffield, Doves of Peace in Manchester, and The Blade in Sheffield.