Senior prepares for expansion after securing £100,000 in funding

YOU would be hard-pressed to find an obvious connection between a Yorkshire grammar school and one of Britain’s best known piers.

The link is provided by Senior Architectural Systems, a company that has a hand in a host of complex, high profile projects. The Doncaster-based company is looking to hire more staff after securing support from Finance Yorkshire.

Senior Architectural Systems, which has 160 employees, supplies a range of fenestration systems for architects and contractors working on commercial building projects.

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Founded in Bradford in 1991, Senior Architectural Systems moved to Doncaster in 2002 and also has factories in Wales and Scotland.

The company has supplied products and systems for buildings across the UK, including Harrogate Grammar School, York University, the Grand Pier in Weston-Super-Mare and Holiday Inn Express in Sheffield. Now, thanks to a £100,000 business loan from Finance Yorkshire, the company, which already exports to Ireland and the US, is looking to expand.

Managing director Lennart Jonsson said: “Last year we had a turnover of £25m but this year we should be closer to £30m, so looking ahead we’re hoping to employ more people and invest further in the business by developing new product lines. We are using the funding to buy extra stock for the glass business and for general cash flow purposes. The market is very tight at the moment so cash flow is more of an issue for all sorts of businesses which means that our customers may not be able to pay us as promptly and that can have a knock-on effect.”

Finance Yorkshire provides seedcorn, loan and equity linked investments, ranging from £15,000 to £2m.

Finance Yorkshire has attracted £30m investment from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), £15m from Yorkshire Forward and £45m match funding from the European Investment Bank.