Leeds and Bradford based Bear Metals Ltd enjoys rapid growth
July 5 2021 – Bear Metals Ltd, a Leeds and Bradford-based balcony and balustrade manufacturing and installation business founded by young Yorkshire entrepreneur Simon Mitchell, aged 27, has hit the £1M milestone in less than 4 years of trading.
Founded in November 2017 Simon saw a gap in the domestic homes market for design-led, high quality handcrafted products and the business has seen rapid growth in this sector. The company now has its sights firmly set on securing more commercial contracts through its holding company SM Industries, set up in 2020, which is enjoying some early successes.
Bear Metals, just one of a group of successful businesses set up by the founder, has seen swift growth year on year. Expanding from a table top business with one employee manufacturing Juliet balconies to a £1M turnover company with 14 employees and 3 manufacturing sites in Bradford, Morley and Birstall. The company now produces a wide range of high quality glass, aluminium and steel products including its own bespoke balustrade system, Alaska.
Business founder Simon has enterprise in his blood. From selling sandwiches from the school car park for profit to setting up his first enterprise in powder coatings aged just 21. He also operates businesses in domestic electric gates and buy to let sectors. Simon’s passion for business, his work ethic and drive was inspired by cutting his teeth as a teenager in the family business. His father Nigel successfully runs Panel UK, a leading Leeds based office and shop furniture manufacturer operating for more than 30 years and Simon is an Executive Director.
Bear Metals, which owes its success to a combination of savvy digital marketing and Simon’s enterprising drive, is so confident in the quality and workmanship of its handcrafted product range it offers a 5 year guarantee. The product range is designed by a 5-strong team and finished in-house using UK sourced materials for complete quality control.
Early success in the commercial market regionally has seen the company win a £150,000 project at a Ripon caravan park to supply balustrades for static caravans and a number of tenders are in the pipeline both regionally and nationally. The business has also enjoyed international project work including the production of bespoke stainless steel balustrades for containers on a water and air purification station in Rwanda, Africa.
Simon Mitchell, MD, Bear Metals Ltd commented:
“We are delighted to hit this significant milestone in our young business during a global pandemic and its testament to the hard work and passion of the entire team. We saw a big uplift in sales during the pandemic when customers were in lock down and sought home projects, but this is only a small part of our success story.
“We have the manufacturing infrastructure in place, as well as a fleet of vehicles with plans to further expand and grow our domestic business and to service bigger commercial contracts both regionally and nationally. It’s an exciting time for the business and we are already planning the launch to market of innovative, new bespoke systems and look forward to investing further in our growth plans.”
