The husband-and-wife management team of award-winning BTS Facades and Fabrications say their whole company ‘family’ deserve the accolades as much as they do.
BTS won the Engineering and Manufacturing category at the 2022 Make Your Mark Awards, held in association with Husqvarna at Redworth Hall Hotel.
The rainscreen manufacturing firm is run by Phil and Marcia Atkinson, supported by members of their family as well as a dedicated team.
BTS started its investment in automation five years ago after visiting Austria, Germany and Italy before purchasing a Trumpf Tru bend 7030 panel bender, one of the first of its kind to be used in the UK.
It represented a £600,000 investment for BTS, but the development enabled the firm to increase headcount from 40 to 55 within a year.
Since then, BTS has continued investment in automation, including the installation of a fully automated punching system, and the firm’s spending on automation currently totals £1.8m, with plans for further investment at its Aycliffe site to support future growth.
And Marcia says it’s the automation side of the business which sets them aside from their competitors, as well as helping to impress the Make Your Mark judges.
“We want to always keep one step ahead of our competitors,” she said.
“When we make a profit, we always invest back into the company. We don’t take it out, it’s always ploughed back in and rewarding staff who work long hours and get us to where we are.
“We’re one big team – it’s not just the Atkinson family, it’s the BTS family.”
And Phil added: “Marcia summed it up – we’ve invested so much in automation. We do a lot of ‘lights out activity’ – we’re here now, but we’ve got machines working away at work. We’re innovators.
“But we’re a family business – five close members of the family work for us, so it’s a big family feel.
“We’re working towards manufacturing excellence. We’ve got Marcia’s brother in as operations director and his objective is ‘lean, manufacturing excellence and it’s one team’ – everyone works together and we’ve just started that journey.”
BTS pipped II-VI and Cobots Online to the Engineering and Manufacturing category, which was sponsored by Barberry Richardson Forrest Park.
Barberry development director and Forrest Park shareholder Jon Robinson presented the award to Phil and Marcia on the night.
“We were proud to have supported the Make Your Mark Awards,” said Jon.
“The quality of all the entries far exceeded all expectations. It was great to see such quality and innovative businesses demonstrating engineering and manufacturing excellence in Aycliffe – creating investment, new jobs and economic growth in the North-East.
“Congratulations to Phil and Marcia and the team at BTS Facades and Fabrications.”
• Pictured above: Jon Robinson, from category sponsors Richardson Barberry and Forrest Park, presents the Engineering and Manufacturing award to Phil and Marcia Atkinson at BTS Facades and Fabrications.