YPIE Blog-week three, day two-Halstock

Today we visited Halstock, where were met Mark Woodhead – the workshop manager at Halstock. Mark talked us through the heritage of the business, types of bespoke cabinetry they produce, its core values and the growth the company has seen within the past 20 years.

It was clear that Halstock invested heavily in production and improving efficiency, looking towards the future by planning months and months in advance.

As a business, Halstock aim to empower their staff, promoting leadership and a structured and processed behaviour. They have a definitive culture amongst their workforce and even employ a behavioural psychologist to nurture and improve the entire workforce.

We were then given a tour of the entire process of how Halstock make their bespoke cabinetry, everything from the workshop to the dispatch office ready for delivery. During our time spent in the workshop we met Alex McIntyre (lead cabinet maker), he expressed that a key aspect of the businesses success was down to the strong communication between each department.

It was essential that all members of staff at Halstock had a previous working history in the furniture industry (except apprentices) , for example Mark Woodhead (workshop manager) previously a carpenter & joiner by trade with a varied range of experience. This previous experience based within the industry makes the members of staff at Halstock experts in their field. You could also see this contributed to the passion and dedication they had in their roles.

We then spoke to Simon Elliot (project manager) who showed us the project management process, in each stage of its development until the final sign off. We were impressed with the level of planning implemented into their design and manufacturing. They also stressed how they’d invested in a new CAD software which has enabled them to draw their designs in 3D and save time and money creating part and CNC drawings.