We’re all part of the team

In a Q&A session, SHD Composites’ global commercial director, Nigel Blatherwick provides the latest update on the company’s exciting expansion plans and how it is negotiating its way through the pandemic crisis.

Located in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, SHD Composite Materials offers a wide range of tooling and component prepregs suitable for autoclave, press and oven curing. Founded by Steve and Helen Doughty, the company is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Over time, SHD has steadily increased its prepreg manufacturing capability and product range, initially supplying to UK businesses, but has now established a truly global customer base, supplying into multiple industry sectors. To support this expansion, the company established SHD Composites Europe (Krsko, Slovenia) in 2017, and SHD Composites US (Mooresville, North Carolina) in 2018. The company currently employs approaching 90 people across its three sites.

Q) What kinds of demands and challenges are placed on you by your customers when it comes to purchasing prepreg materials?

SHD’s approach is consistent across all the markets and territories it serves. We always seek to offer our customers an optimised composite solution and one that best matches their technical, commercial and manufacturing requirements. The key factor in finding this solution is an open and collaborative dialogue with our customers. We do have some standard products, but certainly don’t sell from a set list if better options can be found. The many weapons in our armoury include multiple resin chemistries (epoxy, cyanate ester, BMI, benzoxazine, PFA, vinyl hybrid, etc.), processing options in and out of autoclave and what can seem like an almost limitless number of fibre reinforcement types and formats.

Q) Are there any typical examples where your products have shone above and beyond those of similar competitor offerings?

One area where we believe SHD is taking a truly global lead is bio-based and sustainable composites. For example, we have two product ranges based on our Polyfurfuryl Alcohol (PFA) technology that are very exciting and creating strong end-user pull in key growth markets. PFA is a by-product of cane sugar production and over the last few years SHD has developed a range of products and applications based on its quite unique properties. Our FR300 and PS200 series materials deliver outstanding performance where Flame, Smoke and Toxicity (FST) properties are critical and in certain circumstances allow structures to survive at very high service temperatures. These bio-derived materials service multiple applications in the fields of aerospace, automotive and motorsports.

Q) Has the company made any key capital manufacturing equipment purchases of late and if so, what and why?

As you can imagine, establishing two new manufacturing bases in Europe and the US over recent years has meant a steady requirement for capital investment. SHD designs and builds much of its own manufacturing equipment. This not only saves time and money but, significantly, also ensures that we can exactly replicate equipment and manufacturing output across the Group.

SHD’s most recent investments have been in our new Group Technical Centre in Sleaford. We moved into this new facility in August this year and our first acquisition has been to supplement our existing test equipment with a new 250KN mechanical test rig. We now have ample capacity to fully characterise our materials over a range of operating environments (at elevated and sub-ambient temperatures), and can do so relatively quickly in meeting customers’ service demands.

Q) And, how much customer hand-holding is involved in your product sales process?

Best results are achieved with composite component development when the material, process, part design and cost requirements are considered as-one from the outset. We certainly encourage open dialogue with all our customers on this basis and, having considerable experience and know-how within the SHD team, we can add significant value at all levels of this approach. For sure, we don’t need to hold customers’ hands, but we always do try to help them pin-point optimum solutions. With a comprehensive, in-house materials testing and prototype part manufacturing capability, we have the ability to embed ourselves fully within development programme teams.

Q) Which industries are you seeing the most take-up for your products and services? Automotive? Aerospace? Power generation?

It’s fair to say we are seeing exciting growth potential across many sectors; all the usual suspects: motorsport, aerospace, automotive, defence, renewables, sports and leisure. The key to our strategy, however, has been to find significant growth niches within these sectors where our materials technology can add the greatest value for our customers. We aim to replicate this approach on a global basis and, if all goes to plan, we will see a good distribution of sales in coming years, across all these markets.

Q) What industry accreditations do you hold in order to supply into sectors like aerospace for example, i.e. AS9100, Nadcap, SC21, etc.?

Our UK and European sites are AS9100 Rev D and ISO9001:2015 certified. Without the Covid situation our US site would also have completed its accreditation by now, but will do so now before the end of 2020. That said, SHD works to exactly the same strict standards and procedures across all sites within the Group.

Q) Price and delivery are all givens, but what else do you see as important to serving your customers these days?

Proactive communication, understanding our customers’ business needs, flexibility and speed of service are fundamental to day-to-day operations across all the SHD Group. We continually strive to enact and live-up to one of our key corporate mottos: “SHD - Part of the team.”

Q) What do you feel are the most important assets of a company: a defined strategy, its people, its experience, its use of technology, its locations, or a combination of all these points?

Yes, all the above and we would add a ‘can-do’ attitude, which is, of course, a characteristic of the people you employ. If all these attributes are deployed effectively then the company gains that other vital asset – a good reputation. It may be a cliché, but we’re only ever as good as our last sale, so continual nurturing of these assets is critical.

Q) What differentiates your company from the competition?

We have many very good competitors across the globe, a lot bigger, a few smaller. We certainly try to differentiate ourselves by offering an optimum blend of high quality reactive local service (in all aspects) but combined with the benefits of an increasing global reach. The ‘global and local’ model is hardly a new concept, but if we can manage this while being considered ‘Part of the team’ and not just a product supplier by our customers, then we will have been successful in our aims.

Q) Is there a particular success story you can shout about involving a satisfied customer?

It would be almost impossible and, in many ways unfair, to pick out one or even a few examples. We are probably way too reticent in shouting about our individual successes. The truth is the company thrives from an almost vicarious satisfaction in knowing our customers succeed through our efforts. We have stuck by the side of many of our customers through good times and bad, and the ultimate measure of our success is the exciting sales growth we are experiencing across the SHD Group.

www.shdcomposites.com