Garage rivals come together
TWO rival South Yorkshire garage door supply businesses have joined forces to create a new manufacturing enterprise.
Jeremy Baker of The Garage Door Company, Sheffield, and Darren Baker of JB Doors, Rotherham, have merged to create jointly-owned manufacturer Alluguard, after gaining start-up funding from Yorkshire Bank’s South Yorkshire Financial Solutions Centre (FSC) as part of its Investing for Growth initiative.
Seven new jobs have already been created – with a further eight anticipated within 12 months – by Dinnington-based Alluguard which manufacturers insulated garage roller doors and is set to move into 8,000 sq ft new premises in Rotherham this autumn.
Both Jeremy Baker and Darren Baker – who share the same surname but are not related – are joint managing directors of Alluguard which will supply their own companies as well as garage door installers through the UK, including Northern Ireland where it has just won a major supply contract from Garage Door Systems, Ballymena.
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Jeremy Baker, 50, who founded The Garage Door Company which has 85 staff and a £9.25m turnover delivered through 10 offices nationwide, including one in Leeds, said: “Darren and I remain, rival garage door supply businesses but, through the years, we’ve got to know, and respect, one another and we now find ourselves in a strange but comfortable situation which is for the betterment of us both and our customers.
“Moving into manufacturing has come about for several reasons. If installers get a poor product or service from manufacturers, it creates a greater risk that we shall do the same for our own customers.
“There are relatively few garage door manufacturers and the trend is to make the most cost-effective doors whereas we want to make the highest-quality doors we can with additional safety and security features.”
Darren Baker, 45, whose late father, John, founded JB Doors, which has 12 staff and a £2m turnover, in 1985, said: “In spite of being rivals, Jeremy and I get on very well. Ours is a relationship based on respect and mutual trust. We know how each other operates and how we can enhance this to create the best opportunities for our new venture.”
Yorkshire Bank South Yorkshire FSC business partner, Oliver Dean, said: “Both Jeremy and Darren are experienced and already run highly-successful companies and we were excited by their proposition. We’re pleased to be supporting their new joint venture Alluguard which we believe will become a significant local manufacturing enterprise.”
