Foundry forging future in the crisis

Somers Forge has seen profits drop 10 per cent in the past year. However bosses at the skilled forging firm, which has a turnover of £22 million, say that investing in new opportunities while protecting old skills will safeguard its future.

The manufacturer, in Prospect Road, makes parts for warships, submarines and aircraft and is aiming to expand into power generation as a new nuclear age beckons.

Managing director Peter Mitchell, aged 61, says: "We are heavily into being involved in the new power stations which will be being constructed in the next 20 or 30 years.

"That's the first thing we have to do – find the customers.

"We have invested a lot of money over the past seven to eight years in finding markets around the world.

"The second thing we have to do in a recession is look at our cash. We have to watch our spending and treat our workforce right."

The last part of this philosophy is reflected in the firm's laudable commitment to its recruitment programme. Somers Forge spent £250,000 on training schemes last year, taking on four new trainees and also working with university students.

"A lot of businesses have gone to the wall and the skills you need for this type of work are often lost forever," the father-of-two, who also has three grandsons, says.

"You can't just get people off the streets and get them to work in a business like this."

Everything about the 12-acre operation is vast; from the enormous machinery used to mould molten metal, to the huge value of the stock waiting to be transported across the globe. However the precision of the work is what puts the forge on the map – the steel produced is made to clients' exact specifications and within one thousandth of an inch of their demands.

A bulging order book includes a bumper order from the Indian navy – the firm's biggest customer – and orders from a further six navies around the world. "We have invested a lot – millions of pounds – in the specialist equipment we need over the past decade," Mr Mitchell says. And despite the expenditure, the firm is well placed to avoid any redundancies from its 145-strong workforce, although Mr Mitchell adds "around 10 per cent" will be trimmed through natural wastage.

"I think the effect on the West Midlands has been particularly bad, because of the concentration of manufacturing here," Mr Mitchell says. But in a region and sector particularly hard hit by the recession Somers Forge offers other firms some hope.

"We are about 10 per cent down on last year, although that was a record year," he says. "And of course this recession will affect us because some projects which have been going for a number of years will be affected.

"But there are new projects coming along and the key is to be involved in them."