Member Article

New jobs as Spillard delivers 'blind spot’ answer

A change in how companies approach blind spot management on their vehicles is helping a Wolverhampton-based mobile safety specialist boost sales by 25% and create 10 new jobs.

Spillard Safety Systems, which employs 25 people at its R&D and manufacturing base in Four Ashes, has won a string of new contracts with clients involved in the plant, waste and commercial sectors.

Demand for the firm’s new camera systems, digital video recorders and Vehicle Collision Avoidance Systems (VCAS) has grown significantly as customers strive to reduce accidents, injuries and avoid expensive insurance claims.

Sales for the company are expected to reach £2.8m this year, with turnover up nearly 25% in 2015 so far.

“It has been a fantastic year and judging by our pipeline of opportunities I can only see it continuing,” explained Pete Spillard, Managing Director.

“We have spent a lot of time and money on R&D and now we are beginning to see the fruits of our labour with a number of major contractors – including Balfour Beatty, BAM Nuttalls and Morgan Sindall, making it mandatory to fit VCAS systems.”

He went on to add: “The technology is there now to make driving large vehicles safer and we have developed a cost effective way of allowing our customers to be at the forefront of these developments.

“Our business plan puts us on course to hit £4m by mid 2016. We’re also coming to the end of a £250,000 investment drive that has seen us extend our R&D department, take on two new apprentices and overhaul our fleet of service and maintenance vehicles.”

Established in 1992, Spillard Safety Systems has evolved into one of the UK’s largest specialist mobile safety equipment suppliers to the plant, waste, quarrying and mining industries.

The company’s customer base spans global conglomerates to original equipment manufacturers, many of which have been with the business for more than ten years.

“It’s more than just a case of supplying a piece of equipment. Yes, we have the best and most technologically advanced products in the sector, but we go way beyond that with our customer service,” pointed out Craig Spillard, Finance Director.

“All our engineers are employed by Spillard so we can offer faster response times and consistently high quality fitting and maintenance that many of our rivals can’t seem to match.”

He went on to add: “It all starts with the visibility mapping assessments that we offer free to all our customers. This allows us to clearly show them the danger areas on each vehicle and this is uploaded to an online portal so decisions on how to eliminate them can be made.

“There’s no obligation for the client to buy from us. However, 99% of times this is how the relationship starts as they can clearly see the knowledge of mobile safety equipment we possess.”

Going forward, Spillard Safety Systems is finalising plans to build on the success of Optronics 360° and launch a new smoke detection product that is fitted in the back of wagons and vans to warn the driver of any fires out of their view.

It is also set to introduce VCAS 300 in December, which is an enhancement to the industry recognised VCAS system and comes with additional features, such as tilt sensor, seatbelt warnings, night silence and fail safes.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Russ Cockburn .