HAWKINS GROUP, CELEBRATES CONTINUED MONUMENTAL GROWTH…

Hawkins Group is one of the UK’s fastest growing construction companies offering turnkey solutions to clients across the country and further afield.

Founded in 1978 by Mick Hawkins as a sole trader, the company quickly became known for its quality and reliable service, building the basis for a fantastic reputation the group is proud of today. Mick’s son Mike Hawkins took the helm as Group Managing Director in 2014. Since then the company has achieved huge growth in turnover, staff numbers, premises and divisions within the business.

Hawkins Group of Companies now comprises four operational subsidiaries: Hawkins Roofing, Hawkins Steel, Hawkins Projects and Hawkins Estates

Mike Hawkins knows that people are at the heart of the business and with the right people on the team, Hawkins will continue to go from strength to strength.

In the last five years the company has increased turnover by more than 82 per cent and now has a broader client base, with more technical and diverse projects being delivered. Hawkins now occupies three buildings at its headquarters on Thorpe

Way Industrial Estate in Banbury, which now includes a creative customer experience and dedicated innovation and technical centre.

Mike believes in investing in new technologies, equipment and a skilled workforce, which has resulted in the group’s remarkable and growing reputation for innovation in delivering complex engineering and construction projects.

As an employer, Hawkins strives to provide a positive and fun working environment that focuses on comfort, collaboration and creativity to promote effectiveness and success. Hawkins embraces continuous improvement and strives to enhance staff engagement, job satisfaction and wellbeing.

Hawkins’ dedication to employees and success is celebrated in its multiple award-winning history having won most notably: Employer of the Year, Family Business of the Year and Business of the Year twice in the Cherwell Business Awards, Cotswold Life Awards, Oxfordshire Business Awards and Thames Valley Business Awards.

The company’s cores values of integrity, reliability, professionalism, innovation, people and community have always been at the core of the business. And nurturing these traditional family values across the business is why Mike Hawkins believes the company is a great place to work.

Attracting and retaining individuals with drive and ambition is a key priority…

For employees, learning and development starts the day they join. A personalised training programme gives new starters the tools and information to settle into their new roles smoothly. Developing everyone’s potential means employees are encouraged to be curious, share ideas, support each other and seek new ways to approach every challenge.

Some Hawkins key staff and high achievers didn’t start out in construction – they changed career paths in pursuit of a career and Hawkins invested in them to achieve a win-win for everyone.

James Morrison, CAD Technician with the Hawkins Steel division said:

“Since I hung up my apron as a chef and built a new career in Hawkins Drawing Office as a CAD technician, I have continued to grow, and so has Hawkins, but despite their extraordinary growth they have never lost the close-knit, caring environment that originally attracted me. It is a pleasure to work for a company with real determination that treat their staff so well.”

Everyone at Hawkins, at all levels, enjoys being hands-on, helping drive the business forward, and that includes the site supervisors and contracts managers, who are vital for its success. They represent Hawkins every day and embody the company’s professionalism, customer service, safety and quality standards. They also play an important role in translating vision into action, which is why Hawkins is currently investing in upskilling its front-line leaders.

Matt Cartwright, Contracts Manager in the Hawkins Projects division said: “The growth, attitude and capability of our team to take on more complex and interesting jobs means there is nothing that we can’t do.”

Hawkins Group is committed to developing the construction professionals of tomorrow.

The UK construction sector faces challenges with current labour shortages. Recruitment pressures will only get worse unless companies invest now in training and development.

Hawkins understands this and is encouraging young people into the construction sector. Last June the group held an apprentice open day, working with local schools, colleges and sports clubs to promote careers in construction. The investment into the open day was significant. But as a result Hawkins took on its largest and most diverse intake of apprentices to date.

A career at Hawkins…

The senior leadership team are committed to the Hawkins apprentice recruitment strategy. Continuing to build strong relationships with their local communities and the wider construction community to positively shape the outlook of a career in construction is a key for the group.

Using a blend of conventional and strategic recruitment methods, they are renowned in the local area for being an employer of choice and is continually on the lookout for great people to strengthen the team.

Its commitment, investment and belief in its people is why so many employees stay with the Hawkins family for many years – more than half their employees qualify for the long service award.

Hawkins’ values and cares for its employees and o ers many benefits to support their physical and mental health and wellbeing, including access to structured counselling, employee assistance programme and other health providers. The company enjoys hosting team social events such as summer BBQ’s, family days, long service award days out, a Christmas party and other team building activities. It also brings its team together to support charity fundraisers such as cake sales and this year is organising a Hawkins team triathlon to raise money for the local hospice.

Hawkins is a growing business with endless opportunities and always wants to hear from new talent. In addition to apprentices, semi-skilled and skilled workers, it is also looking for experienced Contract Managers.

By Nicky Godding, Editor-in-Chief

Last year a Tewkesbury company broke its record for manufacturing the longest multilayer flexible printed circuit.

At an incredible 72 metres in length, it was designed for an industrial application using Trackwise’s patented Improved Harness Technology (IHT).

Why is this such a breakthrough? Because Trackwise’s flat printed circuits are much lighter in weight and smaller in size than the traditional, multi-coloured wire harness bundles.

This is manna from heaven for manufacturers across the world who are all trying to reduce the size and weight of their products to meet ever more demanding environmental standards.

Trackwise’s IHT is a reel-to-reel manufacturing technique which can produce multi-layer, flexible printed circuits of pretty much any length. And it believes it is the only company in the world able to do this.

This year the company is predicted to turn over more than £22 million, double what it made in 2021.

The entrepreneur behind the IHT innovation is Trackwise’s chief executive, Philip Johnston. “Everyone wants greater functionality in smaller form. Printed circuits are not new – the technology was first developed 50 years ago to replace bulky wire harnesses. The reason a mobile phone fits in your pocket is thanks to flexible printed circuit boards.

“However, our innovation removes harness size or length limit, and this can also take out up to 70 per cent of weight over conventional wire harnesses, giving huge carbon energy savings – particularly in the case of aerospace.”

Trackwise’s technology is winning business across a diverse range of sectors, from aerospace to the fast-growing electric vehicle manufacturing industry, medical equipment and industrial sectors.

“The versatility and cost-effectiveness of our length-unlimited manufacturing capability means that we are delivering improved connectivity for new and innovative product designs all the time, even where the client does not need a product as extreme as 72 metres in length,” added Philip.

Engineering innovator goes looking for a business of his own

Philip, 59, is an engineering innovator. Having completed his apprenticeship with British Aerospace in Bristol, he joined its guided weapons division. Not wanting to make missiles for the rest of his life, he soon moved to the company’s nascent space department and spent the following 15 years working across the UK space industry.

“It was at the beginning of the UK’s space ambitions and I worked for some absolutely brilliant people,” he said.

He led several government-supported research and development consortiums, including the European CleanSky programme and gained degrees in both Aeronautical Engineering and Law.

But working for a multi-national was never his long-term ambition so he went looking to buy a business where he could add value.

“Trackwise had a niche capability to make printed circuit boards but was selling them to just one customer in the telecoms sector. There were clearly opportunities to broaden its customer base.”

Fast forward a couple of decades and Trackwise is now selling its products and innovations into the fast-growing electric vehicle manufacturing sector as well as aerospace – which is recovering faster from the pandemic than was feared this time last year.

It is also selling into the industrial and more recently the medical sector.

Here it is manufacturing the microwire replacement for small medical catheters – devices inserted in the body to treat diseases or perform a surgical procedure.

“Our circuits go inside medical catheters, which are flexible and in some cases stretchable tubes that go inside the body. The flex can carry tiny components to measure fluid levels such as oxygen content or other medical indications.

“This is pretty exciting technology, and the medical catheter market is huge,” he said.

The opportunities in the fast-growing electric vehicle sector are particularly exciting. European demand for batteries is predicted to rise eight-fold between 20202025 and Trackwise is already supplying printed circuits to a UK electric vehicle original equipment manufacturer, and is in discussions with others.

“We started our electric journey as a very junior member of a Faraday Institution programme led by Dave Greenwood of Warwick Manufacturing Group, and it went from there,” said Philip.

Trackwise also has several companies looking at its emerging capabilities for satellites and spacecraft solar arrays, and there are opportunities in the green economy too.

Trackwise buys second facility to meet soaring demand

To meet a fast-growing demand, last year the company purchased and is currently fitting out a 77,000 sq ft freehold property at Stonehouse in Gloucestershire.

The new site, which should be operational later this year, will enable Trackwise to significantly increase its production capacity to meet expected demand.

“Our Tewkesbury facility will remain our head office, research and development and new product introduction facility,” said Philip.

The company’s success has been almost a decade in the making, and came from what Philip considers was a big, missed opportunity.

“Not long after I joined the business, Rolls Royce Aero Engines came to us with a need, but they only saw a relatively smallscale telecoms industry business and decided to develop their own product with another, larger supplier.

We had the engineering innovation to meet their need, and had we presented a more corporate face, we may have secured the work.”

Philip wasn’t about to let this happen again. He sharpened up the business, which included preparing it for a successful floatation on the London Stock Exchange and securing product patents.

This work set the company on its upward trajectory. “The knowledge and industry know-how we have built up in the last few years is phenomenal,” he said.

Trackwise floated on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market in 2018, and in the last year alone it has bought a competitor and undergone three fund-raising rounds. The last one, which raised £7 million, completed at the beginning of this year.

“The first raise was just as Coronavirus kicked in and we managed it face to face with our investors. The second two we did virtually. I thought it would be challenging to establish new relationships via Zoom – you can’t hand a potential investor your product to examine down a video line – but we succeeded and for that I’m grateful to our investors.

Innovation breeds market acceptance

“A company can have the best technology in the world but if they don’t deliver it to the market in the right manner, it’s easy to be overlooked by big manufacturers.”

Trackwise and its technology is unlikely to be overlooked now, but leading a business in a sector changing almost daily is a challenge. “I’ll be dealing with electric vehicle, industrial, aerospace and medical applications manufacturers all in one week,” said Philip.

“But we continue to push the boundaries. A few years ago, a three-metre-long circuit was innovation. Now we are making circuits of more than 72 metres. Innovation breeds market acceptance.”