A Birmingham-headquartered engineering firm has accelerated its strategic growth with several senior appointments. And the move coincides with an overall boost in employment which has seen the business employ over 50 new employees since the start of the year.
The multi-disciplined adi Group, which covers a broad range of sectors including aerospace and defence, automotive, food and beverage and manufacturing markets, has recently taken on 12 new senior figures at the company, bolstering its 30+ divisional offering. Accelerating its numbers to 700+ staff across the Group, which is situated at Kings Norton, the business has undergone significant growth as it looks to support the manufacturing market throughout the coronavirus crisis and beyond.
“This has been a key time for both the business and the wider manufacturing sector,” said adi Group founder and CEO Alan Lusty, who celebrated the Group’s 30 years of the Grou last year. “Rather than bunker down and hope for the best, we’ve actively recruited in a number of key areas of the business, which has enabled us to continue serving a wide range of manufacturing markets.
“It’s our ears to the ground approach, actively monitoring and responding to changes in the marketplace, that has enabled us to continue our success and birth over 30 specialist service divisions over the years. We now look forward to the future ahead, which will be increasingly shaped by needs to lower carbon footprints, drive production efficiency and lower operational costs, something which is always at the forefront of our minds and business philosophies.”
Joining the adi Group are experienced industry veterans, including new Vehicle Charging Solutions general manager Robert Byrne. Helping to drive electric vehicle infrastructure in the UK, Robert will support divisional director Kenny Green with over 35 years of experience to his name, having led charge point installation projects for big brand names including Nissan and its electric Leaf range.
Elsewhere, new air hygiene manager Gareth Richards is set to bolster adi Environmental’s ranks, having racked up an impressive career in the air and water hygiene sector, with works completed across NHS properties, HM prisons and high security MOD sites across the UK and abroad. Overall, the Group now operates across 12 regional sites in the UK & Ireland, with a manufacturing capacity in excess of 200,000 sq. ft.
The business has also extended its commitment to youth skills development in the sector, continuing both of its apprenticeship schemes throughout the pandemic, as well recently ranking as one of the Best Companies to Work For in the Midlands in The Sunday Times annual survey list. For Group strategic account director James Sopwith, adi’s successes are indicative of its sustainable ethos:
“We’re immensely proud of the success of the Group, particularly given the year that businesses like us have endured in the past year,” he said. “What we’ve been able to do is focus on our foundations, which are fuelled by a belief that building sustainable communities, from regional to nationally, are the building blocks for propelling forward our industry and those that want to work in our sector.
“Our pre-apprenticeship scheme really is the best example of this, a partnership with a local school that educates young people on the rewards our industry has to offer at an early age, dispelling outdated perceptions of the sector and going some way to fulfilling an ever-growing skills gap that we as business face and tackle head on. It would have been quite easy to postpone our apprenticeship schemes in light of the difficulties the pandemic posed, but we simply couldn’t take away that opportunity for young people to get on the careers ladder at a time they needed it the most.
“At adi, we continue to grow and diversify our workforce, with the Midlands and regions across the UK integral to our ongoing business aims.” With household food and drink brands, automotive giants and aerospace experts part of its ever growing client list, adi continues to build in a stature as a one of top engineering firms in the UK, a status upheld by its top ten ranking in the construction and engineering sector in the Best Companies 2021 sector lists.
