Summary
• A new door factory opened in Southam in 2009.
• The company is targeting a return to profit in 2010.
• Stairways intends to develop an FSC-certified Secured by Design door.
• Stair flight production is pushing 300 units per week.
Last summer a frantic scramble emerged between UK joinery manufacturers for the trading rights and forward order book of Lincoln-based Belfield Joinery which had gone into administration.
The successful buyer was Stairways Group, which to date has added more than £750,000 worth of business as a result of the deal. It was a move which served notice to competitors of the ambition of Stairways’ new joint managing directors Karen Wood and Neil Stevens. “It put us back on the map,” said Ms Wood.
The directors, who are brother and sister, took over the reins from their father Roger Stevens in 2007, and have already overseen some extensive changes. This year has seen the volume door operation move from two sites in Leamington Spa to nearby Southam and there has also been new product development, diversification of the customer base, bolstering the sales team and continuing work to strengthen the company’s reputation – all at a time of recession and during the company’s 20th anniversary year.
“When we started this year it was a case of survival not growth,” said Ms Wood. “But we’ve bought a new site and believe the market will come back.”
Strong position
The sale of the Leamington site allowed Stairways to pay off all loans and put cash in the bank, giving it a strong position to ride out the recession.
And since the early summer it has noticed an upturn, with previously mothballed construction sites running once again, though some business is high maintenance as contractors struggle to manage build programmes.
Ms Wood admits that the company has come through a difficult metamorphosis in recent years, including one period when staircase delivery times were five weeks behind schedule and a management restructuring which saw only one former director remain with the company.
“It was a bad time and it took a long time to regain our position in the stair market,” she recalled. “But two years on from that period, the stairs division is stronger than before and customer numbers have been expanded by 50%. We have added £1.25m onto the stairs business this year.”
In 2009, Stairways is looking at a £5m turnover and a break-even position, with a return to profit in 2010. “Last year we took £1m costs out of the business and this year we will see the benefits.”
The group reached its best financial performance (£12m turnover/£1.5m profit) in 2006 when the majority of its business was with housebuilder Westbury, which was taken over by Persimmon at the end of that year and the sole supply contract then terminated.
“The relationship our father had with Westbury Homes was a good one,” said Ms Wood. “Westbury Homes started the foundations of this company and enabled us to perform on the platform we do today.
“Our father was a carpenter who bought his staircases from a company in Bridgewater which went into administration. It was only doing 10 flights a week and he thought he may as well buy it.”
Growing with Westbury
The company supplied stair flights to Westbury Homes, which liked the arrangement and asked Stairways to make all its staircases. Stairways Group grew as Westbury grew. The company progressed and bought a site in Cannock, progressing to manufacture 250 flights and 2,500 doorsets a week for Westbury – 98% of its business.
This Westbury customer dominance meant Stairways didn’t have a sales department as such, as most business was generated automatically.
Now, post-Westbury, Stairways has had to diversify its customers base, with baseline turnover made up of contractors, builders merchants, regional and national housebuilders. It operates from three sites – Southam (volume internal doorsets and door kits), Welshpool (architectural doorsets) and Walsall (stairs).
With stability assured, the company is looking to increase market share. It sees Secured By Design (SBD) as a big area for development and predicts it will become a core product. An FSC-certified SBD softwood doorset is in development, though not yet accredited, while the test portfolio of fire and acoustic doors will be expanded.
“In the next six to nine months we are carrying out a lot of R&D and launching new products,” said Ms Wood, adding that this will include external doors.
Stairways has invested considerably at Southam, where factory manager Robert Turner says the space works much better than at Leamington, as it’s all under one roof. The building, formerly used by MGM Rover parts supplier RDS, has 17,000ft² of factory space and 8,000ft² of office accommodation.
“The efficiency and flow of this factory is much better, especially when we are up to speed and the market picks up,” said Neil Stevens.
Further processing
Stairways doesn’t make doors from scratch but buys in door blanks from UK and European manufacturers, such as Vicaima and Docavi, before further processing into a range of finished doorsets, including FD30 and FD60 products, PAS 23/24 and RapidDorFit for quick installation. Some 90% of production is factory finished.
Production technology includes Masterwood, Wadkin and Hoffman machines, while a combined heat and power plant burning wood waste delivers free heat in winter, improving the factory’s carbon footprint.
Apertures are cut, beadings manufactured and a glazing and finishing section on a mezzanine level ensures all operations can be conducted on site. Patented concealed fixings for door frames also mean there is less to do for carpenters on site.
Meanwhile, the factory’s former car links are being maintained in an interesting respect – the joiners make seat bases for Austin Healeys, as well as a plywood tool to remove the car’s wheel nuts.
“Our skilled joiners can turn their hands to anything,” said Ms Wood. “We have the run-of-the-mill mass produced business, as well as bespoke services, because all of our machinery can be adapted to make our joinery items.”
Southam and Welshpool have a joint capacity of about 2,500 doorsets per week, though current production is about 650 doorsets. And the stair flight business at Walsall is seeing steady progress. In the depths of the recession earlier this year output was down to just 50 stair flights per week, but the average tally has since grown to 150-160, with one week reaching 260.
Stairways, now the second largest stair flight maker in the UK, would like to break the 300 per week barrier.
“Stairs are a different beast from doors – they are not as high margin,” said Ms Wood. “We need to have a large volume running through the factory and the right machinery.”
It could have sold its stairs business to Richard Burbidge a few years ago, but the offer was turned down and in 2006 Stairways turned the tables and bought Richard Burbidge’s 80 flight per week Brankbrook staircase manufacturing business.
Stairways does not contract consultants to sound out such business opportunities – the directors still consult with their father.
Niche roles
Running a company as brother and sister is unusual, but both have found their niches – Mr Stevens looks after machinery and material purchasing, site locations and research and development, while Ms Wood, who trained in hotel management, oversees accounts, human resources, IT and sales and marketing.
“It does become difficult sometimes because you have to do some things the other person does not want to do,” said Mr Stevens. “But we work together and compromise.”
For Mr Stevens, joinery has always been in his blood. “I used to get my dad’s hammer and bang nails into offcuts of wood on site.”
During school holidays he went to the former Cannock factory with his father. He remembers giving his dad advice on who to appoint as factory manager when he was just 14. At 16 he took an apprenticeship and has remained with Stairways ever since.
“My earliest memory was going along to a building site on a Saturday morning where my father was doing carpentry and playing in the sand piles,” recalled Ms Wood.
When she started at Stairways six years ago, she said her industry knowledge was limited – “I didn’t know what an architrave was” – but her customer-facing skills came in useful as she visited clients to put a face to Stairways – something that had not been done much previously. This service-orientated approach is reflected in the company’s motto – “Big enough to cope, small enough to care”.
Further developments will include a rebranding, new website and brochure, a customer open day, and a fourth person for the sales team, as the company seeks to fulfill its vision of having a Stairways Group product in every residential and commercial opportunity in the UK.
