TORNADO BUCKS THE TREND IN 2018

TORNADO BUCKS THE TREND IN 2018

It has been a challenging year for the fencing industry for a number of reasons. It started off with an extremely wet, early spring which halted a lot of fencing projects due to poor ground.

This was followed by a record breaking summer with temperatures consistently over 30 degrees for six weeks from the end of June through to August. The ground quickly went from too wet to work on to too hard. In addition to this farmers had to feed animals through the summer due to lack of grazing, leading to concerns that winter feed would be scarce and expensive. This has now been alleviated somewhat by grass growth allowing a third silage cut. The uncertainty over Brexit and the future for the agricultural industry after March 2019 has meant many landowners have considered putting fencing projects on hold.

In spite of these challenges Tornado have had another successful year, making a multimillion pound investment in increasing production capacity at the Millom factory, Volumes have continued to increase and sales have grown despite the external market issues. Strong UK sales have been bolstered by significant sales to new export customers and markets.

Customer support is paramount at Tornado and we continually work on ways to better support our customers with their businesses. This year saw the release of the selector guides for livestock, horse, deer farm and forestry fence. The selector guides are aimed at resellers as a ‘point of sale’ tool to provide clarity on correct fence specification to end users.

Tornado also achieved Investors in People Award Gold again this year. Investors in People (IIP) is a Community Interest Company, working for better leadership and better workplaces. IIP helps thousands of organisations to lead, support and manage people well for sustainable results. Operations Director, Jonathan Miller said “We were delighted to be reconfirmed as an IIP Gold-accredited employer in 2018. For a business like ours, where the quality of our products and service is so fundamental to our success, it is critical that the whole team is fully-engaged with the aims of the organisation; and the IIP framework is an excellent way of both measuring our progress and developing future plans in this area. It is particularly pleasing to see that across the business everyone feels a very strong alignment with the company’s values and our core maxim of continuous improvement.“

July 2018 saw the Tornado Fencing Competition held at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern as part of the NSA Sheep Event. The prestigious competition has been held biennially since 1984 and is an opportunity for the best fencing contractors to showcase their talents. Mark Evans of MJ Evans Contracting was the winner, Tim Bennett Farm Fencing second, while Morgan Fencing & Hamps Valley Boundaries came in third. Mark has competed at the Fencing Competition three times; he came second in 2012 and won in 2014.

Sales & Marketing Director Paul Harris said, “2018 has been a tough year for the industry but our expertise and flexibility to meet customers’ needs ensures that we continue to have a bright future even in the face of adverse market conditions. We spend a lot of time helping our customers to be successful. When our customers succeed we do too.”

Tornado will be kicking off 2019 at the LAMMA show at the NEC on 8th and 9th January. Stop by stand 7.500 for a chat with the team to learn how Tornado can help your business to grow in 2019. www.tornadowire.co.uk