One of the West Midlands’ fastest growing manufacturers has invested more than £200,000 into a new Headquarters in Four Ashes.
Spillard Safety Systems, which supplies safety equipment for the commercial vehicle, construction, HS2, plant and quarry sectors, has moved into the 28,500 sq ft facility – treble the size of its former site.
The company’s ‘Safety Hub’ now has more warehousing space, a dedicated R&D unit for product development and an eight-bay commercial vehicle workshop that will cater for a 30% increase in installs scheduled for this year.
Led by brothers Pete and Craig Spillard, the business has also just pressed the button on a major recruitment drive that will see it look to employ a further twelve engineers and three additional apprentices.
“Our new HQ was something we had been planning for two years and, when the opportunity came to purchase the building opposite our previous base, it was too good to turn down,” explained Pete, who has been Managing Director since 2003.
“We stripped the building back to its shell and then set about designing it exactly how we wanted it, with a dedicated sales office, larger assembly space, more room for R&D and then the expansive workshop area that means we can do more installs and more demonstrations of our technology.”
He continued: “Importantly, we have also invested in creating a new training school that has space for 20 people to learn a combination of theory and then hands-on practical workshop experience. This is critical for developing the next generation of engineers and, potentially, in training up staff from our customers.”
Spillard Safety Systems has built on a record year in 2022 by increasing sales by a further 25%, with growth being largely driven by the roll-out of two new breakthrough technologies that will reduce accidents and fatalities, as well as delivering improved operational performance.
The company’s AI Human Detection System (HDS) has been an instant hit, replacing traditional systems by simply identifying humans through their shape, form and characteristics.
It delivers audible and visual alerts when a person enters a predetermined restricted, exclusion zone.
The success of this introduction was mirrored with the launch of Spillard Live, an intuitive cloud-based platform that captures and streams real-time video and analytics simultaneously from multiple cameras.
AF Blakemore, Lomas Distribution and Flannery Plant Hire have already signed up to the technology, joining over 300 other companies and 12,000 vehicles connected to the solution.
Craig Spillard, Finance Director, went on to add: “I’m really excited about our training school, which we believe will be the best in our industry.
“There is a mix of classroom and workshop space to train our apprentices and upskill engineers who may be joining us as part of our recruitment drive. Importantly, we are also looking at developing a programme where we can educate and teach staff from our customers to install our HDS and ‘Spillard’ Live systems.
“We feel this will be a gamechanger. Demand from clients in all the sectors we operate in is outstripping our ability to get out on site and service them, so if we can get their vehicles here and show them how to do it, we can speed up implementation by 50%.”
The advancements in Spillard Safety Systems technology have been recognised by its peers, with the company successfully winning the Technology Innovation of the Year and Best Use of Technology from Construction News, National Highways SMP Alliance Best Innovation Award and the Safety Innovation Award at the Plantworx Construction Exhibition.
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