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KIRKLEES BUSINESS NEWS The business NEWSpaper for Kirklees
Expert engineers look to the future
A COLNE Valley engineering firm is celebrating its 35th anniversary in upbeat mood. Slaithwaite-based Hystat Systems Ltd, one of the country’s leading specialists in the design, manufacture and repair of heavy duty hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders, has underlined its confidence in the future by taking on new apprentices each year. Latest trainees Samuel Crow, Jamie Lock and Luke O’Brien are now being trained in all aspects of manufacturing and design while completing courses at Kirklees College and Huddersfield University. And they have a shining example to follow in colleague Jonathan Lee, 23, who joined the company as a 17-year-old straight from school and went on to graduate from the university. Hystat was formed in February, 1976, and began by operating from shared premises in King’s Mill Lane before moving to a
modern unit at Spa Fields Industrial Estate, Slaithwaite, in July, 1982. The award-winning company expanded with the acquisition of the intellectual property of Spenborough Engineering in June, 1986, and achieved £1m turnover for the first time in February, 1988. Hystat built a new extension in 1990 with funding from Capital for Companies, British Coal Enterprise and the Rural Development Commission. It acquired the intellectual property of Cattermole Hydraulics from the receiver in June, 1992, before taking over Bank Bottom Engineering Services in administration in April, 2004 – a move wh i c h a d d e d c o n s i d e r abl e machining capability to the company as well as a new product in sub-contract machining. In 2005, Hystat opened a repair department and built an additional bay on the factory for
heavy machinery. Hystat now employs 102 people – with about 80 at Slaithwaite and the remainder at Honley, where Bank Bottom Engineering was based. The company has manufactured and fitted hydraulic systems for items such as canal bridges, swing bridges, submersibles and aircraft carrier platforms while its lifting equipment is used as far afield as Russia, China, Egypt, South Africa, Brazil and Iceland. M a n a g i n g d i r e c t o r Ray Wadsworth – who began the business working on a drawing board in his back bedroom –said the company was confronted by difficult economic conditions,. But he added: “We are making good in-roads into the oil and gas business. “We see them as good markets to be involved in over the longer term.”
Other mouth-watering delicacies to be featured include Wensleydale cheese, Yorkshire rhubarb from E Oldroyd, Henderson’s Relish from Sheffield, Pontefract Cakes and Womersley fruit and herb vinegars. The new series, to be screened in April, will hit the road and travel across Britain’s culinary landscape to
Bread winners TWO sisters heading a Huddersfield bakery are starring in a national marketing campaign. Heather Hinchliffe and Joanne George, who run Parfitts Bakery & Confectioners, were chosen to take part in the campaign for Rank Hovis. The campaign run throughout 2011 and will be seen in trade publications.
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■ FUTURE PROOF: Hystat managing director Ray Wadsworth (centre) with Jonathan Lee (left) and Luke O'Brien
Sweet treats take a starring roll in TV series A COMPANY with a sweet shop in Holmfirth is starring on the small screen. Ella Riley’s Toffee Rolls is among a group of Yorkshire food and drink firms due to appear on the BBC’s Good Food Channel as part of the new series, Market Kitchen: Big Adventure.
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search out and celebrate the very best of British produce and ingredients. The programme makers called on regional food brand deliciouslyorkshire to help track down some outstanding Yorkshire produce. Yorkshire online butcher and deliciouslyorkshire member Chris Wildman has already featured on Channel
4’s The Secret Supper Club and BBC2’s One Man and His Campervan. Jenny Handley, marketing manager at deliciouslyorkshire, welcomed the opportunity to showcase local products, saying: “It is fantastic to get national airtime like this so we can really shout about Yorkshire food.”
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1, March, 2011
Table toppers A FURNITURE manufacturer in Huddersfield has achieved a first for its sector by gaining a key health and safety accreditation.
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