2021 was the year of the ‘new normal’ and Reddifast Steels Ltd confronted the challenges of living with the pandemic head on, forging ahead with our strategy for sustainable growth.
The restructure of the management team was our core focus and the new sales team exceeded expectations, smashing set targets. Precision slitting of stainless steel coils saw the greatest improvement in sales, meeting an increased demand from customers who required stainless coil in bespoke sizes to precision tolerances.
Our Barriers division also enjoyed significant growth, with contracts awarded for safety systems by several new customers in Europe. With the global barrier systems market projected to achieve a compound annual growth rate of 3.7% by 2027 (Allied Market Research), Reddifast Barriers & Bollards seems well placed to build on its already strong reputation for supplying safety solutions for traffic control and pedestrian protection.
Whilst the impact of Brexit and the pandemic could have negatively affected operations at Reddifast Steels, our strong relations with our main suppliers resulted in solid support and helped us maintain excellent stock levels throughout the year – clearly contributing to the strong end of years figures.
The launch of our new website, in October 2021, clearly had a role to play in increasing awareness of our business in the last quarter of the year. The new site is attracting significantly more visitors than the previous one, with substantial hits from the USA and China.
Moving forward we are recruiting additional sales staff, to further strengthen the existing team. A review of plant machinery is in progress, to ensure it can continue to meet the demand for increased productivity and for improved quality control. Stock holding will also be increased on high and medium carbon and stainless steel in wide coil, for precision slitting, to ensure the ‘blips’ in supply experienced during the first pandemic lockdown in 2020 are never repeated! Speaking about the 2021 trading year, managing director Rod Laight said: “Whilst enjoying the rewards of increased sales revenue, it couldn’t have been achieved without an unprecedented level of hard work and commitment from the whole team and the support of our core suppliers. Collectively we are proud of our achievements and success is a great motivator as we embark on 2022.”