October 2025 Newsletter
Our latest company newsletter is now live!
We’re proud to have won the Hill & Smith PLC Group Safety Leadership Award for our dedication and commitment to health and safety.
We also shine the spotlight on Premier Galvanizing Limited Hull, our galvanizing facility in the North East, to showcase the plant’s capabilities – including 24-48 hour turnaround times on hot dip galvanizing.
Our latest company newsletter is now live!
UK Metals Expo was a huge success this month, and it was great to see so many people both familiar and new.
We also shine the spotlight on Joseph Ash Bridgend, our galvanizing site in Wales, to showcase the plant’s capabilities as one of our nine sites across the UK.
Our latest company newsletter is now live!
This month, we spotlight Joseph Ash Widnes (also knows as Widnes Galvanising Limited), our galvanizing site in the North West.
We’ll also be attending UK Metals Expo in just a couple of weeks’ time, so don’t forget to grab your free tickets if you’re planning on attending!
Read your copy here.
Our latest company newsletter is now live!
This month, we were proud winners of the Supplier of the Year award from the Steel Windows Association, and we share how Premier Galvanizing Corby helped the team at Hill & Smith PLC create an outdoor learning environment for the children at a school in Solihull.
Our May 2025 company newsletter is now live!
This month, we had the opportunity to chat with Jess Price, our Transport Compliance Manager, to find out all about her role in the company and how we’re looking to stay safe and sustainable with our transport.
Our Galvanizing Today article explores what makes hot dip galvanizing the preferential choice for steel used in construction.
We also shine the spotlight on one of our plants, Joseph Ash Chesterfield, the only UK galvanizing site to be Fit4Nuclear accredited.
Our latest company newsletter is now live!
We said a fond farewell to Pauline Alcide, Assistant Account at Joseph Ash Galvanizing Head Office, as she retired after over 30 years’ service.
Our Galvanizing Today article covers the benefits of powder coating for aluminium, and why it’s preferential to traditional liquid paint.
Finally, we share our closing dates for the upcoming May bank holidays to help you stay prepared with any upcoming requirements.
Our March 2025 company newsletter is now live!
This month, our Galvanizing Today article explores how you can protect steel that is too small for hot dip galvanizing from corrosion.
We also spotlight Amy Leachman, our Team Leader at Joseph Ash Walsall, and discuss her role in the Hill & Smith PLC Women’s Network, designed to promote gender equality in an industry that’s traditionally male-dominated.
Finally, we share our guide on safely designing your steel for hot dip galvanizing – crucial for ensuring your work is safe for the galvanizing process.
To read your copy, click here.
Our February 2025 company newsletter is now live!
This month, we talk all about shot blasting in our latest Galvanizing Today article, including what it is, why it’s done, and where you can get your steel shot blasted.
We also had the opportunity to chat to two of our colleagues across the Group: Jess Ramanouski, our Internal Sales Executive at Widnes Galvanising, and Paul Martin, our Commercial Manager at Premier Galvanizing Corby.
To read your copy, click here.
An end of year message from Steven Hopkins, MD, Joseph Ash Ltd
To all our dear customers,
Another challenging year approaches its end! I have come to the view that you, our fabricator customers, and ourselves are sharing the same boat. We all had a dose of uncertainty from the start of 2021, then struggled with labour, then suffered from wage pressure from the driver sector of the workforce, then started to see material supply issues followed by considerable cost increases in just about every bought-in material and chemical. And then, to cap it all, massive increases in energy costs! Oh yes, going full circle, we come back currently to severe pressure on manufacturing wages.
So, I guess we will all be grateful to get 2021 behind us but, hang on, here we go again with possibly another destructive round of Covid! I fear that many Brits have become a bit complacent about it and have begun to ignore the high daily infection numbers, whilst we feel (perhaps with too much confidence) reasonably secured by our double or triple jabs. So caution has gone out of much of our behaviours in public. Not so, though, at Joseph Ash Group – we have never relaxed our Covid defence rules and we have kept up the mask-wearing, distancing, cleaning and detailed investigation of the movements and contacts at work of anyone testing positive for the few days before doing so. Therefore I believe that any of your drivers visiting our sites will continue to be safe, but will, of course, be asked to carry on respecting our rules.
It is difficult to predict the year ahead. Some further restrictions seem highly likely, with maybe even a short lockdown, with lessons learned from 2020 and an acceptance that the economy must continue to function. I doubt if material supply will get any easier for a while yet, and the ongoing, now routine, self-isolation of employees will keep us all several per cent short in labour. On the plus side, demand appears to be holding up. There seems to be plenty of money to fund investment in steel capital goods and projects, with many still awaiting associated materials to allow completion.
So, I wish us all luck in this manufacturing partnership boat of ours, and pray that the seas will remain reasonably calm. But, most of all, I wish that together, our staff and yours will stay healthy and content, starting with a very Happy Christmas for all, followed by a successful, safe and prosperous New Year.
Take very, very good care,
Steven