Stelrad Radiators have been ‘made in the UK’ for more than eighty years, with the first one manufactured in 1936. And in all those eighty years, Stelrad has taken a pride in sourcing its raw materials in the UK.
Clearly the biggest raw material cost for Stelrad is the steel from which its radiators are made. For decades, the steel has come to South Yorkshire where the Stelrad manufacturing unit is located from Port Talbot in South Wales. Delivered in huge coils of mild steel sheet, the factory uses in excess of 30,000 tonnes of steel each year as it makes more than 2 million radiators in Mexborough, close to Rotherham in South Yorkshire.
And whilst that is the major cost and major bulk item shipped in to the factory, there are a huge number of other components and packaging items that are manufactured in the UK and transported – often a relatively short distance – to South Yorkshire.
Radiator valves come from Dunstable, brass fittings from Stafford, whilst other metal fixings make it to Mexborough from Tyne & Wear, from just down the road in Doncaster, St. Helens in Lancashire and Heathfield in East Sussex. Plastic parts come from Milton Keynes. The packaging materials come from across the UK – from Wakefield in West Yorkshire, from Glenrothes in Scotland, from Selby in Yorkshire, and literally a hop skip and a jump away in Rotherham and the shrink wrap for every radiator and all the pallets comes from Brigg, just down the M18.
Stelrad is continually investing in capital equipment in its plant and where machinery manufacturers are located in the UK, Stelrad will always select equipment from them where it’s a viable option – ensuring equipment back up and support is readily available.
“It makes huge sense to get raw materials and machinery from as close as possible to our manufacturing base, but in these days of specialist manufacturers for so many products we have to bring in what we need from wherever it’s manufactured,” says Operations Director David Taylor. “Many of the companies we deal with have changed ownership over the years – our main steel supplier was always British Steel but is now Tata for example, but we’re pleased that much of what we buy in, goes towards supporting British jobs all around the country – that’s important to us.”
With a National Distribution centre alongside the manufacturing unit in Mexborough that, following a recent extension, can hold 360,000 radiators at any one time, it’s not difficult to see the huge volume of radiators that the company makes and to envisage the quantity of steel, small components and packaging required to keep the company functioning successfully.
