Turnaround for components manufacturer as it returns to profit

Brendan Kendrick

South Yorkshire manufacturer P&B Metal Components is back in the black recording a £606,000 profit with sales growing to £22.75m for the last financial year following two years of significant losses.

The Sheffield-headquartered company, with a subsidiary manufacturing facility in Malaysia, annually makes more than 500 million precision engineered metal components for the avionics, automotive and defence industries, as well as for domestic appliance manufacture, industrial control and automation segments.

A plan for its turnaround included consolidating the company’s two UK sites into the Sheffield site, establishing a new business structure and rebuilding the Board of Directors and the senior management team.

The company also introduced a reinvigorated HR programme, conducted an extensive recruitment campaign, exited loss-making contracts, refreshed branding and focused on growing segments in key geographies.

P&B now has a strong order book with further plans to increase its sales capacity to satisfy rising demand from key customers in North America, Europe, Middle East and Asia.

Managing director, Brendan Kendrick, said: “We consolidated Kent and Yorkshire operations in 2020, with the site in Sheffield now being the new HQ and only UK site, accompanied by one Asia-based site in Malaysia.

“The new business structure in Sheffield features a revised board including a chairman, managing director, technical director, finance director, operations director, sales director and June Bushell, joint founder of P&B who is still active in the business today.

“After posting two years of losses we now have a £22.75m group turnover and we made a profit of just over £600k for 2021-22. Additionally, our site in Malaysia delivered a profit this year for the first time since being established in 2014.”

Thee business currently employs 120 staff in Sheffield and 70 in Malaysia.

As a contact assembly manufacturer, P&B supplies to a global market of over 200 customers spread across 30 different countries.

Kendrick added: “We continue to work through the challenges of Covid and Brexit. P&B exports 90% of its products, so we are faced with Brexit, supply chain and international trade challenges.

“Through the factory consolidation and Covid, a key consideration was keeping key suppliers on board. We have a strategy to keep supply local and we are proud to have Sheffield-based Thessco, as a key supplier.

“There are supply chain challenges as lead times have increased from eight to as much as 26 weeks for some key base materials.

“But the outlook is positive, and we are positioning the business for growth in line with the company’s business plan.”

 

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