Our #madeinsandwell Monday star for this week is Barnshaw Steel Bending Group (www.barnshaws.com).

Founded in 1969, Barnshaws specialises in metal bending services, plate rolling and bending, steel curving, pipe and tube bending, profile cutting, tube rolling and laser cutting.

While its headquarters and main manufacturing sites are in Tividale and Wolverhampton, Barnshaws also has manufacturing facilities in Manchester, Scotland and Poland.

This enables the company to retain a wide customer base both in the UK and overseas, working on projects aligned to the civil engineering, rail transportation, power generation, offshore, oil and gas, construction and industrial sectors.

One of Barnshaws’ high-profile clients is Network Rail, for which the company has supplied through specialist fabricators:
* Curved sections to the newly transformed London Bridge Station
* Various curved plates for the iconic Ordsall Chord Viaduct (a newly elevated railway connecting Manchester and Salford – pictured right)
* Curved sections and plates for the redevelopment of Manchester Victoria Station.

Barnshaws’ industrial projects include the supply of cambered roof beams to Jaguar Land Rover’s engine manufacturing facility in Wolverhampton, rated excellent by the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM).

The company manufactured various curved sections, including S-bend columns, for the European headquarters of Bloomberg in Queen Victoria Street, central London [pictured above left]. Bloomberg HQ, designed by Foster & Partners, won the 2018 RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Stirling prize and is reported to be the most sustainable office building in the world.

In order to secure work of this calibre, Barnshaw Steel Bending Group continually invests in marketing, premises, advanced manufacturing equipment, digital engineering, technology and – perhaps most crucially of all – staff skills.

Group commercial director Greg North said: “Our staff are trained to produce the highest standards of quality and this is reflected in the design service that we provide to some of the world’s biggest clients and on iconic building projects.

“Our continuous people development strategy allows us to retain highly skilled craftspeople and attract new engineering talent”.

Greg has worked for Barnshaws for more than 30 years and is impressed by Sandwell Council’s support for businesses in the borough.

“The Think Sandwell concept is innovative, the execution of special themed events such as ‘meet the HS2 architects’ is fantastic,” he said. “Sandwell Council is showing other local authorities how to add value to their business rate-payers and local communities”.

We at Think Sandwell, in turn, are delighted to have a company with the credentials of Barnshaws in our borough. We wish Greg and the team all the best for their ongoing success.

#madeinsandwell Monday is a celebration of the talent and diversity within our borough. If you’re interested in being considered for a #madeinsandwell Monday profile and having information about your organisation shared on Think Sandwell and through our social media networks, read this.