The CEO of Northumberland engineering specialist Universal Wolf has revealed the firm’s plans to double its workforce with 160 more staff in the next five years.
Universal Wolf, based in Blyth, carries out complex sheet metalwork fabrication for a range of industries, creating structures for sectors including agriculture, industry and security. Part of major employer Tharsus, the firm’s CEO Tim Rutter, who joined from Hitachi in January, says the firm has seen huge growth in orders in recent months, placing its products at the heart of many strategic machines that power day-to-day life.
He said the firm is, like most other businesses, tackling the challenges of inflationary pressures and energy price rises, but said the challenges are also serving up opportunities. As a result, the company is now working with a record number of new customers, triggering a recruitment drive that will see its workforce double.
He said: “It’s exciting times for the group overall. Tharsus Group with Tharsus Limited, our sister business, and Universal Wolf are all gunning for growth in the North East.
“Like many organisations there’s certainly been turbulent times and choppy waters but the really exciting thing for Universal Wolf has been the scale of new customers. We’ve secured a record number of new customers and new products to make that’s driven our need to have more fabrication welding resource, and that’s been part of the recruitment drive, to match the need.”
At the moment the firm employs 165 people, but that number is set to top 320 in the next few years as part of the drive.
He said: “As we grow over the next five years or so we hope to up to double that workforce. We’ve had some fantastic long-term relationships with key customers and our long term aim to diversify more, and lots of hard work and effort over many years, has culminated this year where we’ve seen a number of those customers landing all at the same time.
“Customers are in agriculture care, lawn care, wood chipping and transportation equipment – a whole range of companies, and that’s another part of the success story, we’re a multi-sector, multi-customer business, which gives us a level of longterm resilience. In an unstable world that’s really important.”
Mr Rutter said the company is very conscious of the cost-of-living challenges and that is has seen significant fluctuation in the price of materials, as well as rising input costs.
He said: “It’s a mixed picture. There is a positive side in that those unstable market conditions are causing many companies in the UK to look to bringing their supply chains back to the UK or back more locally to add more resilience, so that’s been a key conversation as companies look to shorten supply chains and add more capacity to their supply chains. And many of our customers are growing, so they are adding suppliers, so it’s a growth market overall that we look forward to being part of, albeit there are many challenges that we are facing like others.”
Mr Rutter said that the company talks about itself as being a ‘pack’, supporting the whole team and looking after each other, while also offering opportunities for employees to grow and add skills to their bow. The Grow Our Own initiative allows staff to train in new areas, while also welcoming new employees of all ages who are keen to “join the pack”.
He also said Universal Wolf and the wider Tharsus Group plays a huge role at local level, not just as a major employer for the Blyth area.
He added: “It’s so important for the North East that we’ve got a strong and vibrant manufacturing sector. There are lots of stories on investments and deals at different companies, which is brilliant to see. Ultimately people want the opportunity to earn a good living and learn new skills and apply their skills to interesting work. It’s brilliant that we’ve got such a high skill employer within this part of Northumberland, offering local people the opportunity to come in if they have an existing skill or learn new skills.
"And that’s whether you’re a young person and an apprenticeship, or someone mid-career and wanting a change. It’s so important to retain a mix of employers and critically that we have highly skilled ones because the value add to the North East economy is so important.”
