Reflections on 2022

As we come to the end of 2022, it is a good time to take a look back over the past 12 months to take stock of what we have achieved. This year has seen us emerge from the Covid pandemic, only to then see the start of the conflict in Ukraine, meaning that the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous nature of doing business has continued for another year. Set against this is considerable optimism that next year will be better and that several years of hard work will begin to payoff in 2023. Opportunities that have been carefully cultivated get ever closer to coming to fruition, enabled by investments we have made in our people and the business to allow us to sustain and improve the support that we provide to our customers.

As we approach the Christmas break, we want to say thank you to customers for their continued business, and to our suppliers and our team how have consistently gone the extra mile to allow us to deliver on our commitments to our customers.

Highlight for this year include:

Customers

Customers are our lifeblood, at Bensons we cultivate strong working relationships with our clients as we collaborate to solve problems. Customer retention remains high and we continue to add new customers to our portfolio

• Over 550 control panels delivered since January, with 350 separate deliveries made. On time delivery consistently in the 90's across the year, hitting 100% in several months.
• Control panels built for distribution around the world, including Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Finland, China, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Australia.
• The Bensons team travelled more than 3 times around the world to make deliveries and support customers with up-grades to their control panels on site. No speeding tickets or accidents whilst doing this.
• Bensons delivered panels to 15 new customers for the first time this calendar year

People

As a skills-based business, Bensons can only be as good as our people. Consequently 2022 has seen continued investment in the development of our people and support infrastructure.

• Second employee engagement survey carried out in February, showing an improvement on the previous year
• Mathew Orme joining the team as Manufacturing Manager in May, bringing a wealth of expertise in lean manufacturing and continuous improvement
• Two apprentices gaining their ECS cards, allowing them to gain valuable experience of working at customer sites.

• Two long-serving staff completing the NVQ Level 3 training, allowing them to up-grade their ECS cards to Gold standard

• One existing team member enrolled on a 4-year Level 4 apprenticeship to support his on-going career development
• Appointment of new chairman Adam Walsh to support the on-going development of the business. Adam succeeds John Pinder who helped the team navigate the change of ownership in 2018 and is having a second attempt at retirement

Sustainability

A sustainable business must first of all be a profitable business, we have taken a number of steps this year to improve our business performance and to position ourselves for the future as we embark on a journey to Net Zero (more to come on this.....)

• To improve our manufacturing performance, grant funding secured from Manufacturing Growth Programme and Strategic Growth programme (matched by Bensons) to fund training and development of our staff in lean manufacturing and continuous improvement. Training delivered from March 2022 by Fluere.
• To support the improvement in performance of our design team, additional funding secured from DiT for a continuous improvement programme to be delivered in Q1 2023, again in conjunction with Fluere
• To give our customers confidence that they will receive their control panels when they need them during a time of challenge in the global supply chain. Bensons has worked closely with our suppliers whilst also making major investments of time and money in stock management and inventory control.
• To enable Bensons to become a carbon neutral and in time a Net Zero business, initial steps have been taken to develop a strategy, with a first step of investment a major solar PV array about to be made.
• 150 cubic metres of packaging waste recycled across the year

Recognition

• Nominated for an award in the 'Outstanding Achievement' category at the inaugural Connect Yorkshire annual dinner