Meet Danielle Platt – Commercial Co-ordinator
Danielle joined us recently to work alongside Lucy Foster-Bowen at Joseph Ash Bilston. With a long career in the galvanizing industry, predominantly looking after new business and customer care/sales, we’re pleased that Danielle will now be utilising her experience as part of the Joseph Ash team.
Before working in galvanizing, Danielle worked for a security company (Allegion UK – formerly known as Ingersoll Rand) as a service process coordinator. She has always been in customer service/sales roles and has a passion for building and maintaining relationships with customers.
Danielle said “I am thrilled to be part of the team here at Joseph Ash as the galvanizing industry is where my heart lies. I’m looking forward to helping drive the business forward and maintaining strong relationships with existing customers. I’ve fitted it so well in the last few weeks and already feel right at home here.”
Danielle has two daughters who take up a lot of her time. She also loves to walk, swim and socialise (roll-on the end of lockdown!).
Welcome to the Joseph Ash team Danielle!
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If you can make it – we can galvanise it!
For the last two years, Godbold Blacksmiths has been exclusively sending projects to our Premier Galvanizing team for steel finishing.
The Hull plant has been the lucky recipient and it’s been an honour and a privilege to protect the steel produced by this amazing team of artists and makers.
About Godbold Blacksmiths Limited
Godbold Blacksmiths was set up in 1985 by James Godbold. Based in Whitby, North Yorkshire, it began with a few commissions and grew from there.
Fast forward 36 years and the Blacksmiths has a large workshop employing nine people, trained in both traditional skills and modern techniques.
The Company now produces everything from gates, railings, candlesticks, staircases, signs and sculptures – pieces which have often been inspired by the local scenery: the Yorkshire Moors and the rugged coastline. Hear more about this from James himself.
Hot dip galvanizing
As Godbold’s works with iron and steel, and metals need to be protected from the elements (to prevent against rust and corrosion), the Company sends their projects to Premier Galvanizing Hull for hot dip galvanizing.
Hot dip galvanizing is important because it provides a long-life, low-maintenance corrosion protection which safeguards steel from atmospheric attack.
Works of art
Over the last couple of years, the team at Hull have been proud to hot dip galvanize sculptures, gates, railings, benches and even door handles on behalf of Godbold’s. They also treated the steel for the now famous Godbold Fin the Fish sculpture, which was used as an environmental awareness campaign by Yorkshire Water, Scarborough Council and the University of Hull in 2019.
Long may this partnership continue.
Here’s a snapshot of some of the projects we have worked on:
‘If you can draw it – we can make it’
When Godbold Blacksmiths receives a commission from a new customer, no job is too big or too small. In fact, their motto is ‘If you can draw it – we can make it’.
Because the Hull plant is proud to hot dip galvanize for this talented team, their response is: ‘If you can make it – we can galvanize it.’
Find out more:
To read more about Godbold Blacksmiths, visit their website or view their social profiles (Instagram and facebook).
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We’re always looking for interesting articles in the steel industry too!
In December 2020 (including throughout the Christmas period), the Joseph Ash Chesterfield plant underwent a series of major improvements that has helped the plant to get off to a flying start in 2021. The following works took place which will provide huge improvements to Joseph Ash employees and customers alike:
- The 40 year old concrete in the road at the main gate was replaced, making the surface smoother for visitors
- A new entrance and exit gate was installed to improve traffic flow around the site
- We also installed two new overhead cranes
- We carried out a series of total preventative maintenance projects to keep the site running smoothly and efficiently
- Finally, the whole of the inside of the plant was repainted, making it clean and fresh for the New Year!
If you’re a regular customer of our Chesterfield plant, we hope you find these improvements beneficial to the services we provide to you. Do let us know if you have any feedback, or you think there are any other improvements we could make that could make your lives easier when you visit the plant.
We’re pleased to announce FORS renewal for Joseph Ash Medway, having once again met the bronze level requirements of the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS).
The Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) is a voluntary scheme that covers all aspects of vehicle emissions, fuel efficiency, economical operations and safety.
FORS enables vehicle operators to know they are helping to increase efficiency, win work, and reduce costs. It also provides peace of mind to vehicle operators that legislative requirements are being met. Finally, it enables operators to know they are becoming safer and greener.
Joseph Ash Galvanizing Medway was first awarded the bronze certificate for FORS in 2016.
Thank you to FORS for assessing us. Thank you also to the team at Medway who worked hard to receive the award.
End of year message from Steven Hopkins, MD, Joseph Ash Group
Dear Customers,
It’s the end of the year… Where did 2020 go to? It seems to have been non-stop, with a huge amount more to think about and manage than normal.
As you might know, in the Joseph Ash Group we made the decision early in the Pandemic not to allow the situation to impact our customers, but nor could we allow our employees to be put at risk. So we worked hard as one big team across all eight plants to quickly develop our protection systems and order extra sanitising gels and PPE as quickly as possible. The Furlough Scheme allowed us to reduce concentrations of staff (although we’re pleased to say we are able to repay it in line with the decision of our parent group, Hill & Smith Holdings PLC). Alterations to shift start and finish times helped as well.
What pleased us the most, however, were the messages of support from several customers who also stayed open and who said they would have been in difficulty without their “last production process partner”. We were also delighted to have the opportunity to showcase our abilities to many new customers who knocked on our door for the first time during the Spring lock-down, and have elected to keep us as their production partners ever since.
It also pleased us to be able to help the national pandemic effort by processing steel for much-needed facilities such as the NHS Nightingale Hospitals, an extension to an oxygen tank facility at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London, and equipment such as clinical waste bins and trucks, and crash trolleys.
I guess it should be no surprise to anyone if I say that April and May were tough months. However, we seemed to regain some equilibrium by the last week of May and volumes thereafter increased each week by several percentage points, until today we find ourselves extremely busy. This is in no small part due to our excellent Sales teams who were not furloughed and spent their time working very hard and effectively from their kitchen tables – with no office conversations about football or TV to distract them!
We have had two significant challenges to deal with in 2020 – I guess no different to many of you:
- As we “employ” around 70 agency workers in our group, mostly on a temp-to-perm basis, they were inevitably furloughed by their agency employers and many became lost to us;
- Whilst the incidence of Covid diagnoses in the Joseph Ash Group has been well below the national average (I have probably driven our people mad with constant nagging about hand-washing!), we have still temporarily lost the services of dozens, isolating due to family members testing positive. I have also been surprised how many partners of our employees are facing danger every day in the NHS and Care sectors – God Bless them all.
So, maintaining capacity has been a challenge at times, but we have been saved by the reasonable distances between our plants and a very cooperative desire by them to help their sisters. Now, we are well on the way to rebuilding our teams, with the last tranche (or recruits) set to join us in the New Year.
In all, whilst 2020 has been grim in many respects, it has given the people of the Joseph Ash Group the chance to really show their mettle and I am inordinately proud of every one of them. I believe that, whilst our profits might be down, in more ways than one this has been the finest year of our 150-year history.
But none of the above would have been possible without you, our excellent customers. You too have faced adversity, come through it and supported us in our endeavours to keep going and maintain our standards of service. What a great partnership! I thank you most sincerely for your efforts and our relationship.
On behalf of everybody at Joseph Ash, I wish you and your loved ones a happy, peaceful and healthy Christmas, and a far better New Year!
Kindest regards,
Steven Hopkins
Managing Director
Joseph Ash Group
Read our November 2020 newsletter from Joseph Ash Galvanizing – hot off the press today!
To read a copy click here.
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We’re always looking for interesting articles in the steel industry too!
The annual Galvanizer’s Association Galvanizing Awards (affectionately known as the GAGAs) took place on Tuesday. This year’s event had to be virtual, but the celebrations were in full swing!
The GAGAs celebrate the use of galvanizing in architecture and art. The GA also celebrated the added use of galvanizing in conservation, innovation and sustainability.
Find out who the winners of the 2020 GAGAs are:
Architecture Award
The Architecture Award celebrates the most innovative and effective use of galvanized steelwork in architectural projects. This year’s Architecture Award went to two joint winners:
Fordham Abbey Dojima Sake Brewery, near Ely in Cambridgeshire by SCABAL & KPTA, and The Hill House Box in Helensburgh by Carmody Groarke.
Engineering Award
The Engineering Award celebrates the most innovative and effective use of galvanized steelwork, but with special attention paid to structural functionality and industrial use of galvanized steel.
The Centre for Dairy Science Innovation at the University of Nottingham, by Haston Reynolds, is this year’s Engineering Award winner.
Sustainable Award
The Sustainable Award celebrates projects where galvanized steel is used mainly for its ecological benefits, which are clearly reflected within the project’s description and the philosophy behind it.
The Listening Station by Beech Architects won this year’s Sustainable Award.
Duplex Award
The Duplex Award takes into consideration projects that use galvanized steel coated with any of the organic coatings i.e. wet paints, powder coating etc. As with the architecture and engineering awards, it includes all sizes of project and the functionality as well as the aesthetics of the structure will be of interest.
This year’s Duplex Award has been won by Surman Weston, for Ditton Hill House in Surbiton.
Detail Award
The Detail Award is granted to projects that display interesting and innovative uses of galvanized steel in elements that are not the main part of a structure. But form a detail, which supports the overall functionality and aesthetics of the architectural or engineering project.
This year’s winner of the Detail Award is MELOY Architects, for Hill House Passivhaus.
Special Mention
Finally, this year’s Special Mention Award went to metal sculptors Bill and Peach Shaw, for their work Peacock.
The judging panel for the 2020 GAGAs consisted of Matthew Wells (Techniker), Isabelle Priest (RIBA Journal), Robin Dryer (chadwick dryer clarke studio) and Iqbal Johal (Galvanizers Association).
Congratulations to all the 2020 winners, and shortlisted entries!
See some of the award winners in a GAGA YouTube film.
And hot dip galvanized garden sculptures
Two years ago, a client of our Corby (Premier Galvanizing) plant – Kurt Lightfoot – received an unusual birthday present from his wife: an artist’s metalwork course. Kurt completed the course and became hooked, and two years on now runs his own steel metalcraft business called Orna-Metal UK.
Orna-Metal UK – based in Peterborough – specialises in quality handmade garden features, household decorative ornaments and bespoke sculptures for independent retailers and private customers. Every item is unique using traditional methods and skills.
Drawing on inspiration from the ‘Arts and Craft’ movement of the late 19th century, which rebelled against poor quality mass production, Kurt creates works of arts which reflect the organic beauty of nature.
One such work of art is Dennis the Dragonfly!
To grow his business, Kurt spent time exhibiting at craft shows and wanted a statement piece to attract attention. He decided to sculpt a magnificent dragonfly, and Dennis was born!
After taking Dennis to two shows, a customer approached Kurt with an offer to buy. However, the customer wasn’t keen on the weathered look, and wanted the dragonfly to be shiny and silver so that it would stand out on the island on a lake, where it’s now installed.
Hot dip galvanizing was the answer and Kurt booked our Corby plant to manage the finish.
Premier Galvanizing Corby was the perfect option as the galvanizing baths could accommodate the large size of Dennis.
The team at Corby rose to the challenge and treated the dragonfly with a protective galvanized finish that will last for many years to come.
Kurt was very pleased with the finish and has since sent some additional sculptures to Corby. Below are some cala lillies, which were hot dip galvanized in late Summer/early Autumn.
It’s a pleasure to work on such impressive works of art and we look forward to a growing relationship with Kurt and Orna-Metal UK.