SevenHills Fabrication
SevenHills Fabrication are specialist sub-contract fabricators and laser cutters covering the UK from its headquarters in Sheffield.
The company prides itself on its engineering heritage and wears the Made in Sheffield badge, a mark of origin and quality on the city’s manufactured products, with pride and honour.
A skilled team at the family-run business provides quality laser cutting, CNC bending, tube manipulation and fabrication services.
Started in 1926 as J A Wilkinson & Co, an artisan family tool-making business in Sheffield city centre with four employees and deliveries taken by bicycle, it now boasts nearly 50 staff and a turnover of more than £5m.
The team draws upon significant breadth of experience and skills from a range of industrial sectors to provide a comprehensive fabrication service with customers in construction to warehousing and automotive.
Products manufactured at its Sheffield facility include complex manufacturing assemblies for the aerospace industry, snow ploughs, tractor accessories, grader boxes and augers for agriculture, towbars for the automotive sector and working-at-height platforms for a range of industries.
James Harding-Terry and his wife, Michelle, became sole owners of the company after an MBO in 2017. They re-structured the business to focus on growth, development and sustainability.
SevenHills now adopts an Industry 4.0 approach to manufacture, coupling apprenticeships and highly skilled staff with the latest technological developments and efficiencies to compete nationally. Its ongoing apprenticeship programme has been revamped for 2021.
The company’s ongoing investment programme on state-of-the-art facilities, new technologies and increased efficiencies has seen improvements to plant, equipment, working conditions, productivity, energy consumption and waste material ratios. Investment in Research and Development is responsible for 50 per cent of the company’s growth to date.
State-of-the-art equipment includes a £550,000 Bystronic fibre laser cutting machine; £60,000 electric tube-bending machine; improved extraction facilities, LED lighting, £200,000 press brake and a £150,000 robot welder.
The development of a carbon-free fabrication area has addressed the burgeoning demand for pure stainless steel fabrications for marine, catering and medical applications. These products with zero carbon contamination remain free from rust.
The drive to ensure that all areas of the plant benefit from Industry 4.0 technologies has seen heavy investment into machines which can learn and self-calibrate, linked to a state-of-the-art £250,000 computer system to allow for accurate planning and production delivery.
These approaches are normally associated with much larger manufacturing operations and are, as yet, barely acknowledged within the fabrication industry.
SevenHills Fabrication is part of Steetley Corner Group of companies which incorporates IT consultancy company Acuma Technology; towbar specialist PCT Automotive and SevenHills Fabrication, all based at Sheffield’s Holbrook Industrial Estate.
