EDITOR’S CHOICE
OPEN FOR BUSINESS
CORBETTS
Corbetts remains open for business
with vital NHS and utility contracts
Maintaining supply to critical utilities
customers and helping protect vital IT
cabling for the NHS has kept the UK’s
oldest hot dip galvanizer open for business
during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Corbetts the Galvanizer has used its 160
years of experience to pivot some of its
operations to provide galvanizing services
for covers at sewage treatment plants
and for cable trays and ladder racking
used at the NHS Nightingale Hospitals in
Birmingham and Manchester.
The company, which has kept more
than 50% of its workforce operational,
is now planning to ramp up volumes in
line with Government guidance on social
distancing and increased activity within its
other customer markets, including leisure,
automotive and trailer manufacturing.
“It has been a really challenging period, but
I’m very proud of our outstanding workforce
who has enabled us to support existing
and new customers supplying services and
parts to the frontline,” explained Sophie
Williams, Finance Director and General
Manager at Corbetts the Galvanizers.
“We wanted to keep as much capacity as
we feasibly could open, so decided to shut
Plant A, whilst moving over some staff to
Plant B. This gave us 24-hour coverage,
seven days per week and meant we could
respond quickly to urgent orders, such as
the ones we completed for the NHS.”
She continued: “Sales in a number of core
markets dropped off the cliff in April after
a pretty strong March and, like many firms,
we had to react accordingly…using the
Government’s furlough scheme to protect
some of our workers.
“We are expecting some of these markets
to return and volumes to gradually pick-up
again, albeit slowly. As this happens, we
will look to bring more of our staff back and
potentially explore reopening Plant A.”
2020 marks 160 years of Corbetts the
Galvanizers supplying world class hot dip
galvanizing to thousands of customers
across the UK and Europe.
The company, which was originally founded
by Samuel Corbett, opened its Wellington
factory in 1860 and Shropshire has
remained its home ever since.
However, today’s site on Halesfield, its base
since 1999, will be barely recognisable
to those that started out all those years
ago, with a new water recovery system in
place, state-of-the-art kettles installed and a
13-strong fleet of vehicles in the yard acting
as the distribution nerve centre for serving
its client base.
14 PECM Issue 45