As we look back on 2021 it has certainly been a year of learning opportunities! We have experienced difficult conditions, with a depressed Automotive market, but we have also seen significant highlights with several new customers coming on board in both Aerospace and Automotive industries.
We have also seen revenue growth from several established customers, despite the challenges of disrupted supply chains, Brexit and energy price hikes.
We are in fact ending the year as we began the business more that 10 years ago, with a project machining engine protection system for the Rail industry.
Because of non-disclosure agreements, we are unable to share many of the specific details of the projects we work on, however, we can share with you that one of our most exciting projects this year has been with a low volume replica sports car.
An existing customer asked us to work on the project with them producing A class panels and tooling for the body parts. With compressed timelines and significant up-front engineering challenges, we are delighted at the way the project has come together, and is testament to the team at Cube, our designers, customer and their end customer. Working together with honest and open conversations allows us to add real value to our customers.
A particular highlight is being able to be back out visiting customers again and also extending invites to them to our site. In October we were delighted to welcome 24 visitors to site for a networking breakfast morning in conjunction with our accountants Haines Watts and our good friend Paul Varley from Navigate Commercial finance. Being able to demonstrate our capacity as we spoke around current projects and future programmes really allows us to demonstrate how we add value to customers, which done in person really makes a difference to a Zoom call!
We are widely regarded as a good barometer of SME Manufacturing, so we were pleased earlier this year to be asked to take part in interviews for The Times, BBC News and ITV News. Discussing the impact of Brexit, Energy Prices and recent inflation rate changes – drawing on real life challenges affecting all businesses helps put in perspective how adaptable UK SME’s have to be to external factors.
Thanks to the support and mentoring of LMR Global we have had a successful AS9100 audit visit for 2021 we have been working with Ex International Welsh rugby player Nigel Davies, who has guided us through re-purposing our system bringing it in line with some of the changes we have made post lock down.
We are looking with hope towards the New Year, we can see the Automotive sector getting busier and we are expecting significant orders throughout January and February to support the first half of the year.
Finally, and most importantly, we’d like to thank our team for their support and diligence throughout what has been a tough and challenging year. We certainly wouldn’t be moving into the New Year in such a strong position without their hard work and adaptation to change.
We will all be taking a well-earned rest as we close for Christmas on Thursday 23rd December to Tuesday 4th January 2022.
Best wishes to you and your family for the Festive Season and we will see you in the New Year!
Neil
20th December 2021