Lancashire manufacturer aiming to recruit as part of growth strategy

A fast-growing manufacturing business has outlined plans to recruit 20 staff as it looks to double in size in four years.

Slingco, which recently made the move from Whitworth to a new 32,000 sq ft facility in Rawtenstall, is a global specialist supplier of tools and equipment, including cable grip and wire rope products, to construction, industrial and energy markets.

The company currently employs around 70 staff and has a turnover of £12m, which it is growing at around 20% each year. As well as its Lancashire facility, Slingco has operations in India and the United States.

Managing director, Nick Dykins, has now set a target of 28% growth per year, enabling Slingco to double in size in around four years and take on an additional 20 employees. Its expanded Lancashire operation is expected to be a major contributing factor to this growth.

Nick said: “As a company we’re continuing to develop new products and we plan to capitalise on this by continuing to grow our Lancashire and overseas operations.

“The new Rawtenstall site will allow us to double our production capacity, but we have also put in place several strategies which will provide a framework to allow us to scale. We have started to use value stream and process mapping, in addition to building our IT roadmap and inventory management.”

He added: “We have also been reviewing our use of data and performance management frameworks.”

Last year, Slingco took part in the Scaleup Resurgence programme run by Two Zero, a scaleup business support partnership led by Lancashire Country Council.

The support programme was designed to help scaleup companies in Lancashire through the COVID-19 pandemic and return them to their scaleup trajectory as quickly as possible.

Two Zero is a Lancashire County Council-led scaleup partnership and helps leaders of Lancashire scaleup businesses realise their ambition by delivering programmes, providing access to inspirational and educational resources, and opportunities to network with other scaleup leaders.

“The reason for joining the programme was to investigate new ways of working that could assist the drive for performance growth,” added Nick.

“The ability to share experiences with other business leaders in a structured and constructive way and work with specialists provided great insights and helped us to understand the art of the possible.”