Ladder for the Black Country: Saddle company seeks new apprentices

For more than 30 years they have been based in Walsall, the home of English saddlery, producing a range of saddles and saddle trees to suit leisure riders, competitive amateurs or top-level professionals.

The business provides skilled fitting, the finest workmanship and its trademark flexibility that enables it to create the ideal saddle for the rider and their horse, ensuring that both can achieve their best.

At the heart of every saddle is the saddle tree. Originally solely crafted by hand the saddle tree, through continuous design and development is now an engineered hybrid- combining traditional Ply materials in conjunction with state-of-the-art CNC routing, computer digitisation and utilising laser cut parts. Saddle tree manufacturing is now a fusion of hand craft and modern manufacturing techniques.

As Ideal & WRS continues to develop as a company it is continuously looking at further technological advances to keep moving forward in design and development

It currently has three Performance Through People Apprentices within the business who have joined in conjunction with Walsall's Leather Skills Centre. One of them, Hannah Scoffham was named apprentice of the year at the centre in 2021.

Due to the success of its current apprenticeship programme, the company has created more apprenticeship opportunities and is looking for new members to join the company within the tree factory. Roles will include sanding and laminating (glueing) processes.

Through the partnership with Performance Through People it is offering a Level 2 Apprenticeship in lean manufacturing operative with apprentices working in the growing and developing Walsall manufacturing business.

For further information and details on how to apply contact Performance Through People 01922 651100 or email info@ptp-training.co.uk