First winner of E&S award is revealed

The Express & Star has always been proud to support manufacturing in the West Midlands and Staffordshire. The awards, in association with the Manufacturing Advisory Service West Midlands (MAS-WM), has been set up to honour long-standing firms that continue a proud industrial tradition in the region. Each winner of the awards has been established for more than 75 years – yet they are able to adapt to modern times. Professor Carl Chinn will visit other successful firms throughout the year.

Bird Stevens is today named the first winner of the Express & Star Manufacturing Awards.

It is an award that acknowledges expertise, cutting edge technology – and good old-fashioned hard work.

The firm is based in Brierley Hill, a proud manufacturing town defined by the prowess of its people at making of things.

The town has made many things over the years, and made them well. Steel of thehighest quality; pipes of every kind for gas, water, steam, and heating; beautiful glass; decorative tiles; powerful chain, cable and anchors; and galvanised hollow-ware of every type imaginable.

In fact, the Black Country could readily have proclaimed itself as the hollow-ware capital of the world, so many were the buckets, watering cans, boiler fillers, bowls, beer cans, pails, turnip skips, water cans, coal hods, milk cans, seed hoppers and much more that were made here.

Thousands of people depended for their livelihood on the hollowing out of metal into a receptacle of one kind or another.

In 1913, Robert Stevens, a sheet metal worker, and William Bird, a works manager, paid £250 for a plot of land in Sun Street, Quarry Bank and started making galvanised hollow-ware.

Within seven years, the two founders had severed their connections with the business.

In 1920 it was bought for £1,950 by Jack Jones, who owned the Old Hill Manufacturing Company, and his partner, Harvey Atherley. They successfully came through the hard years of the 1920s and 30s. On July 27, 1936, Bird Stevens was incorporated as a limited company and Jack Jones became the sole owner.

After the Second World War, he was joined by his nephew, John Page, who became part owner. The legacy was a strong and lasting one and John's sons, Robert and Andrew Page, remain the major shareholders of the company.

Hollow-ware for domestic, industrial and agricultural purposes was the main stay of the company and highly skilled workers continued to cut metal from sheets and shape it by hand.

But by the early 1960s, traditional hollow-ware manufacturing was coming under intense pressure from the introduction of new and cheaper materials such as plastics, nylons and synthetic resins. The management at Bird Stevens adapted quickly to this potentially damaging change. They directed manufacturing to the industrial sector and a move was made away from galvanised products and into presswork and fabrication.

In 1965 Bird Stevens gained an important contract to make tractor guards for Massey Ferguson.

The company went on to make products for the Ministry of Agriculture and thousands of lawn fertiliser spreaders of its own design for ICI.

This new business necessitated new machines such as spot welders, seam welders, vertical lathes and automatic riveters, all of which meant new buildings.

In the mid 1970s, orders were secured from two major American floor cleaning companies for mop wringers and tubular trolleys.

During the same period it found another niche market – making galvanised steel toilet cisterns for the Middle East.

During the 1980s, Bird Stevens continued to expand and a new extension was opened.

It had a complete range of power presses, ranging from 20 to 400 tons, which ensured that Bird Stevens would maintain its position as a world leader in presswork, fabrication, sheet metalwork, assembly and tube manipulation.

The products made included steel anchored floor plates, railway pad back plates for braking systems in carriages, and press ings and assemblies for gas metering equipment and crash barriers.

Diversity, niche goods, quality production, first-rate machinery and a motivated workforce were obvious in the fabrication and assembly departments. Bird Stevens also invested in another crucial aspect – design and development.

Today the company is famed not only for its ability to rapidly turnaround products with complex shapes but also for ensuring that these products are successfully 'hotdipped' both inside and out. This is achieved by applying the galvanised coating by hand.

The economic downturn of the last two years has once again hit manufacturers hard but Bird Stevens is determined to come through it with confidence.

Employees are encouraged to further develop through 'Train to Gain' with Dudley College; while Worcestershire-based 'E2' Energy Management Services is involved in identifying energy saving low carbon technology.

Innovative, adaptable and proactive, Bird Stevens continues to invest in its products, its workforce, and its premises. As it does so, it invests in Quarry Bank and Brierley Hill and it invests in the economic and social well being of our region.