Growing CRM to £4.5 Million and Receiving the Queen’s Award
I’ve been a Director of Corrosion Resistant Materials (CRM) since 2020, and in that time I have helped grow the company from £1 million turnover to £4.5 million in 2023, which has contributed to the many awards CRM has received, particularly the prestigious Queen’s Award. This incredible growth was achieved by bringing in new systems and procedures to make sure the business was running smoothly and making the most of opportunities. I also had to raise the profile of the business through active marketing and brand awareness. I was able to bring the customer base from around 100 to over 400 and systematically grow the business in over 38 countries. We are also award winning and active in the local community as well as the manufacturing community.
Corrosion Resistant Materials, based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade for exceptional growth in Export Sales in April 2022 and celebrated winning the Queen’s Award with the visit of Lord-Lieutenant Dame Hilary Chapman to the site, in September 2022. Attending the event was Deputy Mayor of Rotherham Cllr Robert Taylor, Master and Mistress Cutler James and Jo Tear, as well as guests representing The BVAA, BSSA, Made In Yorkshire and The Barnsley and Rotherham Chamber of Commerce.
Receiving this award has given us as a team worldwide recognition and a sense of a job well done. Receiving a prestigious award like this vindicates we have made the right decisions and are going in the right direction. This is only the start as we continue to grow year on year and we will use this as a platform to further growth, employment and development.
I’d had my eye on this award for a while. There was a qualifying set of turnover that you had to have, which was £100,000 turnover in your first year and then they based it on three years turnover. The application form was immense, it took me about six months to fill it in; lots of different sections. It was all on who you are, what you do and the community work - they want to know whether you do a lot of work in the community, whether you support apprenticeships or other businesses. The environment was a big section as well. So I mentioned that our steel is 100% recyclable.
In terms of turnover, we’d gone from £100,000 right up to around £1.5 Million in that three year period. But more importantly, our percentage of sales had increased from just under 10% to 50%. The reason we applied for this award was to gain recognition for our export sales. The Queen’s Award is an internationally recognised award, so it was to give our company name credibility in export.
You keep working within your own company and it’s quite isolated and you think you’re doing a good job, but when somebody from the outside, especially the Queen’s Award and the government, say you are actually doing a good job it gives you more drive to do more. Currently CRM supplies over 70 different grades of materials into 38 countries worldwide and offer a full supply service including Heat Treatment, Machining, Testing, and Forging.
Other Awards CRM have won since I joined the team:
🏆 UnLTD Magazine: Best Manufacturing Company 2023 and Best Company 2023
🏆 The Careers & Enterprise Company: Partnership Working Award 2023
🏆 Insider Media: 50 Most Exciting Companies in Yorkshire 2023
🏆 Barnsley & Rotherham Chamber of Commerce Celebration of Business: Winner (Adam Bradley) Business Person of the Year 2022 and Highly Commended Apprentice (Jack Craven) of the year Category 2022
🏆 UnLTD Magazine Awards: Manufacturing Business of the Year 2022 and Business of the Year 2022
🏆 Made In Sheffield: The Export Award 2022
🏆 SME News: Business Elite 2020 Leading Technical Materials Specialist Supplier 2020