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Kicking off the second official Made in Yorkshire (MIY) episode of the Editor’s Pick, a bi-weekly LIVE stream from the Made in Group, Karen Tinkler - Director at the Partners Group sits down with three members to discuss their latest news.
Karen held an interesting and engaging discussion with like-minded business leaders Ian Thurley from Siddall & Hilton, Jo Young from Additive-X, and Kully Nijjar from Catax to chat about investment, success stories, and how manufacturers can qualify for Research and Development (R&D) tax relief.
Brand new from the Made in Group, The Editor’s Pick goes LIVE across the group’s social channels every first and third Wednesday of the month - streaming to over 30K followers. The aim of the 20-minute discussion is to engage members with the latest news in manufacturing, getting up to speed with what their fellow members have been up to.
Based in North Yorkshire, The Partners Group has been helping manufacturing and engineering businesses use PR and digital marketing to grow, attract staff, launch new products, and more. A lover of storytelling, this made it easier for Editor Karen Tinkler to pick three stand-out stories published to the Made in Yorkshire platform.
Long established manufacturers of welded wire mesh, Siddall & Hilton have aspirations of becoming world-class mesh manufacturers. Hand-picked by Karen to discuss on the stream, their story entails the company’s recent £2m investment in Mesh Welding Capabilities.
The largest investment made in 12 years, the new LGR102 welding machine is set to produce 100% of Siddall & Hilton’s industrial mesh product range. As a result of the investment, the firm will be creating up to 12 new jobs - great news for the West Yorkshire area. Ian Thurley, Chief Executive at Siddall, said:
“We purchased the machine from Austria - which has been a very straightforward process considering the restrictions due to COVID-19. They even supplied us with an engineer who has been by our side since April.
I would recommend to manufacturers that if you have funding and availability investing during a downturn has huge benefits. It means you can capitalize on growth when the economy returns, which has been our main aim”
Next up Karen spoke with Jo, Managing Director at Additive-X, discussing How Lush Revolutionised Product Development with the company. The leading additive manufacturer helped Lush find out how they could modernize their manufacturing ways. Previously hand-making molds, which could take several days, Lush now has the capability of 3D printing their molds thanks to Additive-X. Jo said:
“3D printing has an array of benefits from producing molds, like Lush, to prototyping for manufacturing - with positive impacts on time and cost savings across the board. In the past, we have really helped businesses make a difference in their processes - allowing them to print their own goods. In the past, we have helped the likes of the food industry gain the capability of printing their own grips for their lifting tools - which can be printed time and time again.
Lastly, Karen spoke with Kully from Catax, who has recently joined Made in Yorkshire as a patron. Also patrons for Made in the Midlands, Catax help manufacturers receive tax relief on their R&D projects - already working with many Made in Group members.
Karen wanted to find out more about how easy it is for manufacturers to find a claim in R&D, Kully said:
“Innovation leads to an R&D tax claim, it doesn’t have to be an advancement in science and technology by someone in a white lab coat. As long as businesses can demonstrate the “head-scratching moments” where they have tried something and it hasn't worked out there should be a claim. We are here to help businesses find their story and prove to HMRC that they have still made a level of advancement in the sector. Alongside writing the reports for this, we work with accountants to maximize tax relief”
