Our Impact Day 2023

The impact day started with an introductory speech by our Group Managing Director, Stuart Bamford, to reveal what the Impact Day would involve and express his gratitude for the hard work from everyone in the company throughout 2023.

Stuart was later accompanied by Dr. Lars Ischebeck, representing the fifth generation of the Ischebeck family.  Dr. Lars provided a comprehensive overview of our company, tracing the origins of Ischebeck back to its inception in 1881 by Friedrich Ischebeck. He delved into the company's remarkable 133-year journey, highlighting pivotal milestones, and elucidating the factors that have contributed to Ischebeck's enduring success.

The last few years have been very unusual for us all, possibly one of the hardest business landscapes in recent history with the challenges of BREXIT, COVID-19, Wars, and various other economic, political, and environmental factors. Despite these challenges, our Senior Leadership team went on to present how they have been working tirelessly on driving the company forward, investing in more solutions, new premises, product ranges and our staff.

Business Development Update

The first member of the senior leadership team to present, was Neil Conroy, our National Business Development Manager, who was interviewed by John Pollock, our Operations Manager. Neil joined Ischebeck back in 2006 as a Sales Engineer with over 16 years of experience. Fastfoward 14 years later he took on the newly created role of our Business Development Manager in 2020.

Neil presented how the business development team assess trends and opportunities in the market and shared information on large upcoming projects for the group and our plans for future development of the business.

After sharing information on how business development operates, Neil went on to explain how we identified new markets and the significant investment we have made recently to break into these sectors.

Sales Update

Andy Caulfield, the National Sales Manager for Ischebeck Titan & Inform was next to present and give his update on the sales side of the business. Andy started his presentation with an introduction to his role in the business, the importance of teamwork and how the business had been performing over the last 12 months in terms of sales figures.

A primary emphasis of Andy's presentation revolved around the significance of teamwork, underscoring how collaborative efforts are integral to achieving success. He stressed that "Sales cannot function in isolation from the rest of the business, and conversely, the rest of the business relies on revenue generated from sales." The emphasis on this quote in the presentation, aligns with our “Core Values” that we uphold throughout our business.

Andy provided detailed insights into the sales performance of both Ischebeck Titan & Ischebeck Inform, highlighting key products, discussed strategies employed during challenging periods, and addressed the ongoing and anticipated impacts of the current economic conditions on sales revenues.

Design Office Update

After an interesting and detailed update on the sales performance of the business, it was our Chief Engineer, Stephen Hubbard’s turn to take to the stage and give us an update on another of our core pillars of the business.

Stephen delivered a captivating and comprehensive presentation detailing his tenure in his current role over the past couple of years. He elaborated on the transformative changes implemented in the team, operational processes, and the overall output of our design office.

Furthermore, Stephen outlined his future vision for the Design Office, emphasizing his ongoing commitment to enhancing the team and delivering exceptional service to our clients.

GE Update

The Geotechnical department update came from Stuart Bamford, who has temporarily taken over the management of this department to allow Colin Thompson to use his skills and knowledge in a more sales focused role. Stuart explained the challenges that suppliers face in this marketplace and how the quality of the Ischebeck hollow bars is the best in industry.

As the geotechnical side of the Ischebeck Titan group of companies is one of the smaller parts of the group, the presentation was met with some great questions from people who aren’t usually involved in the business operations.

Operations Update

John Pollock, our operations Manager joined the stage with the Senior Leadership team to discuss the importance of Operations in the Ischebeck Titan group and how he plans to cope with future challenges that come with even more planned expansion.

Upon moving to our new, purposed built site, a few joked about it being too big and how we'd never fill the space, but due to the growth over the last couple of years, more plans are being made to find even more space to facilitate our growth.

John also provided a glimpse into upcoming plans for operational efficiencies, which include the introduction of new machinery to enhance processing speed. This initiative aims to enable more efficient utilisation of stock and ultimately improve our overall service to clients.

The audience responded to John's presentation with robust questions, expressing a keen interest in gaining insights into the meticulous planning required for our future growth and our operational strategies.

Team Building

Following the informative presentations and a brief intermission, we enlisted the skilled team from Red Zebra to facilitate team-building activities. The aim was to foster unity, enhance interactivity throughout the day, and provide a firsthand experience of the significance of teamwork in reaching shared objectives.

The initial activity challenged participants to construct the tallest tower using spaghetti and marshmallows, providing a prime platform for our designers and engineers to highlight the agility and applicability of their skills whenever needed. The second activity emphasised the advantages of a collaborative approach, aiming to ensure all team members quickly made contact with a tennis ball—achieving an impressive record of 0.5 seconds for eight individuals to touch it.

The activities brought new people together in the business whose paths wouldn’t usually cross and helped to form even more unity within the business and strengthen the foundations of our team.

Evening Ischebeck’s Got Talent

After a day brimming with informative presentations detailing our history, current position, and ambitious plans for the future, it was time to transition into an enjoyable evening of drinks and entertainment.

As we are a small company that like to make a lot of noise in the market, we thought we’d bring this spirt to the stage and hold our own talent show “Ischebecks Got Talent”.

The talent show featured brilliant singing and musical performances from the team, including a wonderful cover of "Sweet Caroline" by our longstanding National Sales Manager, Andy Caulfield.