Yorkshire Laser & Fabrication Ltd

Business Loans Case Study

The Company

The Castleford based business was formed in 1991 by Chairman Garnett Orford. He established the firm after being made redundant from the Leeds based printing business he ran for Robert Maxwell. Since moving back into engineering he hasn’t looked back, and the business now employs 35 people, including Garnett’s son Matthew, who joined Yorkshire Laser as a teenager and is now Sales & Technical Director. The business has an annual turnover of £3m and works in sectors ranging from automotive and medical to telecoms, engineering and power generation.

The Challenge

In order to increase production and ultimately create additional jobs the business needed to invest in a new welding fume extraction system for its fabrication facilities in Castleford.

Finance Yorkshire Involvement

Over the last three years Finance Yorkshire has invested a total of £170,000 in the business, which in addition to the extraction unit, has assisted with the construction of a new industrial unit on site at Castleford.

The Investment Rationale

Finance Yorkshire Investment Manager Grahame Lunt said: “Strong management and leadership skills have seen Yorkshire Laser & Fabrication continue to grow and explore new markets. The new extraction equipment will create a cleaner working environment and enable improvements in productivity for this successful manufacturing business.”

Future Expectations

Managing Director Matt Orford said: “We’ve had great support from Finance Yorkshire and this latest investment for the fume extraction unit will make a big improvement to our fabrication department.

“We’re looking to grow our workforce by seven and want to increase our customers and grow sales and at the same time improve efficiency and profitability. Our next step is to build another 10,000 sq ft unit to house our laser cutting equipment.”

Note: this case study is from Finance Yorkshire’s previous fund. Read more about Finance Yorkshire