Haydock based Fibre Drums, has upskilled their workforce and achieved exceptional staff retention rates with help from St Helens Chamber.
Established in 1969, the business manufactures and distributes specialist packing materials. This requires a skilled and motivated workforce which has been achieved through commitment to staff development.
Stephen Cunniffe, Managing Director, said: “We took advantage of the Apprenticeship programmes that were on offer from the Chamber, and we committed to every Apprentice that we took on.
“Everyone we have taken on in the past 5 or 6 years, was given a full time role on the completion of their apprenticeship. We are committed to educating our staff through training and development. We’ve also put some of the long term shop floor staff through qualifications as well, for example English and Maths that they didn’t manage to get at school.”
As a result of their dedication to developing staff, the business was nominated and went on to win the Business of the Year Award at the Chamber’s Awards, which took place in March. Stephen continued: “We got invited to the Apprenticeship Awards, but we didn’t expect to win and it was a nice surprise when we did.”
Fibre Drums has recognised the importance of training staff and taking on Apprentices, not just for the future of the company but for the benefit of the local community as well.
Stephen said: “We like to put back into the local economy in terms of creating jobs for local people. We are a long established business in St Helens and have been trading for over forty years.
“We traditionally have a lot of long serving staff and we do have an ageing workforce, so we have been trying to develop young people in the business so we can continue for years to come.
“The benefit of having younger people coming into the business is that that you can mould them and they don’t come in with preconceptions.”
St Helens Chamber provides a range of training services and Apprenticeships in a wide variety of subject areas. For businesses looking to follow in Fibre Drums’ footsteps and secure the future of their workforce, the Chamber can supply a shortlist of ‘Chamber Approved’ young people for businesses to meet and select based on suitability for the role. All ‘Chamber Approved’ young people come with our guarantee that they are ready for work and have the right skills.
Support from St Helens Chamber has helped Fibre Drums achieve their staff development goals. Stephen said: “Fibre Drums has had tremendous support from the Chamber and we’ve had some excellent candidates put forward.
“Rory has just completed his Level 3 in Management, and he will possibly be looking to do a degree in the future. He started as an Apprentice and he is already an Assistant Production Manager.
“We also have Tanisha in the warehouse who has been trained to drive the forklift truck and is starting her Level 3 Leadership course in September. We’ve taken a lot of people on and all of them have been excellent in their own way. I would definitely recommend taking on an Apprentice to other businesses.”
To find out more about Fibre Drums, visit the website at http://www.fdlgroup.co.uk/
For more information on the training available through St Helens Chamber contact the Workforce Development Team on 01744 742333 or email workforce@sthelenschamber.com
