Bright future for Steelway

Founded in the 1920’s at the Queensgate Works site in Wolverhampton by C W Goodyear, Steelway has a long-standing heritage and the new owners are keen to build on the established legacy of the Steelway brand.

To facilitate this transition the previous owners Dan Houghton and Walter Karpynec committed themselves to a smooth handover and worked with the new management team until the end of June.

Steelway specialise in the design, manufacture and installation of metal fabrication across its three divisions supplying bespoke, high quality solutions to a range of sectors.

The main Steelway division produces architectural and access metalwork. Steelway Fensecure manufactures a range of fencing, gates and bespoke access and partitioning solutions. Steelway Brickhouse manufactures a range of access covers and complementary security solutions for use in the water, sewerage, telecommunication, power and rail markets.

Steelway’s blue chip client base includes the likes of Cross-Rail, HS2 and the Hinkley and Sellafield nuclear power stations.

The new owners are looking to build on the excellent base of long serving staff members and have already begun an employment drive. With a focus on developing existing skill sets they are recruiting new staff including Senior CAD Technicians and Project managers to service exciting new framework contracts secured in recent weeks. Investment is also a core element of the plans moving forward. The first steps have been put into motion to modernise and bring innovation to the existing systems and processes such as investing in a 3D laser scanner – and expansion of production capacity is already underway. Providing the highest quality service to its loyal customer base is at the heart of the company’s ethos.

Steelway’s new leadership team is managing director Paul Sweeting and commercial director Peter Noble-Jones.

Paul comes from a background of product design, and production engineering, across various metal fabrication businesses making him a perfect fit for Steelway. For the past six years Paul has been working as group technical director for the Bradbury Group. This period was spent combining and overseeing of the Group’s R&D and engineering functions, but increasingly helping drive commercial and strategic business growth across UK markets and abroad.

Paul said: “The Steelway name and brand is, and always has been synonymous with quality across the market sectors within which it operates, most notably utilities and construction. Personally, I’m extremely excited to build upon this rich heritage and have the opportunity to lead the business towards it’s 100th year. The new owners and management team inherits a tremendously well run business, from Dan and Walter, for which they must be commended, not only for that, but the way in which it has been steered successfully and profitably through these most unprecedented last 18 months.

"As we move forwards, with a recovering market, new investment, an aggressive sales and marketing strategy, combined with the fantastic experience and talent we have in the teams across our businesses, the future for all at Steelway is tremendously exciting”

Peter joins Steelway after 20 years of working with Bradbury Group, growing it from a window grills manufacturer into the largest steel door producer in the UK. Peter’s expertise is in growing revenue and building relationships with new industries and clients.

“The opportunities for Steelway are immense. I have an excellent team, with extraordinary depth of knowledge. The overriding message I receive from clients is how their projects would not have gone so smoothly if Steelway wasn’t involved. The interaction with other suppliers and flexibility to deliver when required is key.

"The construction industry, both commercial and residential is booming which plays perfectly in to the hands of our three divisions. Building on this track record and ethos is a dream ticket," he said.