Thirty new staff in less than three months

Sternfenster has appointed 30 new members to its manufacturing team in less than three months in response to the growth in demand seen for windows and doors this summer.

The new posts give the fabricator flexibility while supporting its strategy for long term growth, the company said.

Mike Parczuk, managing director of Sternfenster, said: “Our focus has been to invest and bring a high degree of automation to our manufacturing capability. This gives us the flexibility to switch on increased capacity as we need it.

“The limiting factor on that capacity is people. There are jobs that can’t be done without them, however advanced your operation is.

“With our team fully back from furlough in June, it became clear that we were going to need to recruit to meet demand, which we’ve been able to do successfully and, importantly, in line with our plans for longer term growth.”

Sternfenster has also continued to invest in machinery. This includes the a six-figure investment in a new Schirmer ALU BAZ Composite Orbit-C machining and cutting centre and a FOM Ever Theta Crimping Machine.

“We’re investing in people but also machinery,” Mike said. “We don’t want to use them for cutting prepping, crimping because people – because they are people, and not machines – don’t give you the consistent product quality that we’re looking for.

“The Schirmer brings exceptional quality right to the start of our aluminium manufacturing process. The Ever Theta Crimper, which will come in later this autumn, gives us the same consistent quality, while further expanding our aluminium capacity.”

He continued: “We remain a family owned and run business, and the people who work here define who we are. You can have the best machinery or products in the world but if you don’t underpin that with the right service, you aren’t going to get very far.”