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Tony Searles and Sue Battersby accepting the award for Sales & Customer Service

Press Release - 07/12/06

Sheffield Chamber of Commerce Business Awards

Williams Fasteners - A winning team !

Williams Brothers (Sheffield) Ltd t/a Williams Fasteners keep going from strength to strength. Following their success at the Rotherham Chamber awards in October,winning the LSC Invest in Skills Award, they were nominated for a staggering 4 awards at the Sheffield Business awards, more than any other short-listed company, successfully winning the Sales and Customer Serivces award.

Since the management buyout in July 2005, Williams Fasteners have gone from strength to strength.

Susan Battersby, Managing Director says " we celebrated being nominated for four categories at the Sheffield Business Awards, more than any other company, and we are overjoyed at winning this prestigious award. It shows how far Tony and I have come in this short time and we want to thank all our staff for the hard work and commitment they have shown over the last 18 months".

Tony Searles, Chairman, adds "winning this award for Sales and Customer Services highlights the confidence we have in our sales team based in Sheffield and around the country. They are there to help our customers and will assist them in finding the right product to meet their needs. Our Engineering and Specials department are able to offer a bespoke service with the expertise to provide any special fastener, Whatever you want, we can supply it"

Read below the short listed entries for the Sheffield Business Awards.

The Learning & Skills Council Training & Development Award

Williams Fasteners was a family owned business which has been trading since 1875, providing industrial fasteners to Sheffield & the UK. After a management buy-out in 2005, the new owners, Tony Searles and Susan Battersby, took the decision to invest in the skills of the 78 employees to develop and encourage them for the future of the business. The company may be over 130 years old, but were are still learning!

The Pentagon Vauxhall Sales & Customer Service Award

Williams Fasteners head office is based in Sheffield where we have a warehouse that stocks over 22,000 lines of standard industrial fasteners and allied products. From here we are able to service our local trade counter and our four satellite branches in Manchester, Norwich, Middlesbrough and South Wales. Our fully trained, experienced sales staff are friendly, reliable and able to solve problems even before they occur! They are focused on making sure that everything goes to plan, from the placing of an order to the final delivery.
                                                                                                                                                       

The Rensburg Sheppard Employee of the Year Award

Tony Dickinson is the warehouse manager at Williams Fasteners and has been with the company for almost 30 years. His Skills and knowledge gained during his career have proved to be an asset to the company and he is a valued member of the management team. His hands-on approach to managing the warehouse has been a refreshing change and he has helped with the development of our young and eager staff. He also recognises that he needs to learn and develop himself and is always prepared to listen, communicate and improve.

The Sheffield Hallam Businesswoman of the Year Award

Susan Battersby, Managing Director of Williams Fasteners, is one half of the management buy-out team that took ownership of the company in July 2005. Since the buy-out, she has implemented a successful development program which has resulted in improved turnover, profit and staff morale. Her enthusiasm and personal motivation is driving the company forward to be part of Sheffield's future as well as being remembered as part of it's past
                                                                                                                                           

 

Williams Senior Management team and their partners at the Sheffield Business Awards

 

 

 

Tony Searles & Sue Battersby with the LSC award for Investing in Skills

Press Release - 02/10/06

 Rotherham Chamber of Commerce Business awards

Team success for Williams Fasteners

Williams Brothers (Sheffield) Ltd have started once again to make big waves in the local business community. With a nomination and a subsequent win of the Invest in Skills award at Rotherham Chamber in October, Williams are putting their name firmly back on the map.

Williams Brothers (Sheffield) Ltd have been trading for over 130 years as distributors of industrial fasteners. The Head office based on Shepcote Way in Sheffield, where they have the main warehouse and stock, servicing their own trade counter and satellite branches in Manchester, Norwich, Middlesbrough and South Wales.

With over 22000 lines in stock and access to thousands of standard and special products within the UK and from global sources, they offer a quality service that is hard to beat!

In July 2005, the company changed hands through a management but-out. After 130 years, the Williams family were no longer a part of this local Sheffield business. Tony Searles and Susan Battersby, two directors of the company, took ownership and management of the business, focusing on area's that previously had received little or no attention.

The starting point was improving staff morale and commitment. The company works in partnership with employees to fund and assist with the training and identify their career paths, even when they have been working with the company for almost 30 years.

Training has come at all levels. Newly appointed managers who have all the knowledge at their fingertips after working with the company for a long time have now received leadership & management training so as they offer the best to their team members.

As a result of the improved motivation and staff morale the directors have now been able to focus on the next key area being sales and customer service.

The emphasis is on giving the customers the right product, at the right time, at the right place.

To have their success acknowledged by the Rotherham Chamber has been the ultimate accolade for the company.

The directors are proud of the staff and the commitment they show to the company. The hard work that has been generated by everyone is now starting to pay off and to be nominated and win the Invest in Skills Award is a great achievment.

They want to thank everyone for getting them to where they are today!

Williams Fasteners Senior Management Team

 

 

PRESS RELEASE - 28/07/2005

New start after buy-out at firm

Fastener stockholder & manufacturer bought by management

One of the countries longest established fastener stockholder & manufacturer has been bought by its management after 135 years of family ownership.

Williams Fasteners, which employs 74 people between its head office in Sheffield and nation wide branch network has been sold to a management team for an undisclosed sum.

Tony Searles, who has been with the company for 27 years and was its sales director becomes chairman and financial director Susan Battersby, who joined around 3 years ago, becomes managing director.

The deal was clinched with the help of a professional team comprising of bankers HSBC, lawyers Wake Smith and accountants Meager Wood Locke in Birmingham.

Mr Searles praised the team saying " They have been absolutely superb".

Williams Fasteners, which is a trading name of Williams Brothers (Sheffield) Ltd, was founded in 1870 and was based at Green Lane in Shalesmoor in Sheffield until 1997, when it's head office function was transferred to Shepcote Way on the outskirts of Sheffield close to the M1 to allow better distribution of its products.

                                                                 

The company more than doubled its turnover and made a series of acquisitions in the 1990's, gaining footholds outside Sheffield for the first time, establishing branches in Manchester, Middlesbrough, Norwich and South Wales.

The company has been run since 1998 by Andrea Shelley a direct descendant of the founder of the company George Williams. Earlier this year Andrea made the decision that the time had come to sell the company and stop having to make trips from her home in Birmingham.

Williams Fasteners generates a turnover of around £6.5 million a year, selling over 53,000 different product lines to a massive customer base comprising of steel works, construction, railway, mining and window system customers, ranging across the UK and abroad in Canada and India.

Having its own manufacturing division allows the company to produce bespoke fasteners from standard and exotic materials in a range of diameters and lengths which go into, amongst other things, nuclear powered submarines.

Tony Searles says the company plans to increase its turnover further and to continue to grow the business on the basis of high levels of service and its manufacturing capabilities.

Mr Searles said " We want to expand - that is part of the reason for buying the company"

Williams gets to Grips with Window Fixings
 

Williams Fasteners offers a range of specialised screws used in the UPVC window manufacturing industry.

Backed by in-house design, test and inspection facilities, its window screw range has been designed to ensure the highest drilling performance in both piercing points for unreinforced profile and drill points for reinforcement up to 4mm thick.

The screws are also protected to withstand more than twice the proposed new corrosion resistance standard.

The introduction of stainless steel, in both piercing point and drill point screws is the latest in a series of enhancements to meet the demands of the latest developments in fabrication.

Barry Ward, Williams' Product Manager, said: 'The introduction of this range onto the market is already proving a great success.

'These screws have been developed showing actual benefits in the ease of application, remedial call out costs and considerable cost savings that can justify the effort of changing suppliers.'

For further details on the new screws as well as a full range of allied products such as sealants, frame fixing, masonry and high speed drills contact Barry Ward, Product Manager on 0114 256 5244.

 

Send mail to pauline.habershon@williamsfasteners.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2005 Williams Fasteners                                                                                                                                                                       
Last modified: October 25, 2007

Williams Fasteners is a trading name of Williams Brothers (Sheffield) Ltd

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