igus manufacture high-performance polymers for motion applications including energy chains, bearings, robots and 3D printing. At their UK site on the Brackmills Estate, they stock over six million parts that can be shipped within 24 hours. Here, Managing Director, Matthew Aldridge talks about the value this location brings to the business and why Igus are always keen to meet their neighbours.
From a backyard in Cologne to the rest of the world
Founded in 1964, in Cologne in Germany, we have been producing innovative products made from lubrication-free plastics for 60 years. We have 31 locations and 50 distributors in over 80 countries.
We first came to Brackmills in 2005, having moved from our first UK base in Daventry which we had opened a decade earlier. Brackmills gave us the opportunity to upscale our operation, creating a purpose-built facility to meet our needs. The location of the estate was also a key factor given its fantastic transport links to the M1, A45, train links and airports. For us, ease of distribution is critical and Brackmills gave us access to that.
Feeling safe and secure
But things have not always been quite so rosy. Before the BID was in place, the estate was a hotspot for crime. We are huge supporters of the work the BID team have done in making Brackmills a safe and secure place to work with the introduction of CCTV, ANPR and the PSCO on the ground.
We take a keen and active interest in the various BID forums, not least because we want to make a difference to the environment we work in, but also because it helps create a sense of community.
We are proud of our staff retention rate and we know how important it is to offer our workforce a safe and secure place to come every day. Thanks to the good transport links, bus services, e-Scooters, walking and cycle paths, Brackmills is an attractive location to recruit people from across the local area and beyond.
Creating a sense of community
We are all about getting to know our neighbours and we enjoy contributing to the estate being a great place to be; whether it’s through well-being groups and bootcamps for mental and physical fitness, planting oak trees in the Brackmills Park, encouraging and rewarding car share to reduce our carbon footprint and traffic on the estate, or offering mutually beneficial spaces for meetings and events.
With the wide variety of businesses, big and small on the estate, we also think there is a great opportunity to open our doors to get to know more about what we all do – for example, we would happily welcome our neighbours to come and immerse themselves in our iguverse – an innovative virtual reality tool that demonstrates the new, fascinating possibilities in product development and prototype production.
Protecting our future
Always pushing boundaries for innovation, we are equally passionate about ensuring a circular economy to re-use as much waste plastic as possible. We encourage our customers to return end-of-life plastics to us so they can be recycled. A fantastic example of this is our new Igus bike, which is made of 50% recycled sea plastics, and aims to deliver sustainable, green mobility to all.
Looking to the future, we know how vital it is to encourage young talent into our field. Our Yes campaign is a young engineers support program, designed to offer talks in schools and higher education, free advice and information on career paths and access to sample products.
For more information on any of the topics discussed in this piece, please visit the links below:
https://www.igus.co.uk/info/company-young-engineers-support
https://rcyl.bike/en/igusbike-goes-rcyl/
https://www.igus.co.uk/info/iguverse
If you would like to arrange to visit the iguverse, please email Harry: [email protected]
