Stepup Scaffold UK are a new business which has been created following the purchase of Turner Access’s scaffold manufacturing operations in Glasgow.
The company has taken occupancy of a 40,000 square foot site in Govan on Glasgow’s Southside which was previously the manufacture and warehouse facility for Turner.
Director Simon Russell told Project Scotland that the company has significant investment and backing as part of a global scaffold manufacture and distribution business led by US-based Stepup Scaffold, a division of Sunshine Enterprises. This makes it ideally placed to play a leading role in the local and UK scaffolding market.
The premises are undergoing a full refurbishment which will provide Stepup’s customers with the required warehouse and operations support to store and directly supply a high volume of quality products to the UK market.
Simon Russell said, “Stepup has been in the UK since 2016 and there is momentum behind the investment that has been placed in the company – with a new location, quadrupled inventory, and industry leading team.
“Our customers can call today and know we have £3.5 million of high-quality inventory sitting on the ground in Glasgow, with product shipments coming in every week. As a business we want to push further across the UK and continue to develop our strengths in customer service, such as in-house design, refurbishment advice and technical support.”
The Glasgow based team currently has six employees, all of whom have extensive experience in the sector, and another recruitment drive is due to take place over the next 3 months.
The company has a unique offering in that they develop and manufacture their own products in their own factory in China and a new factory is being built in Columbia. Further global distribution operation is in place from Denmark and the US.
The UK team have played an integral part in the knowledge transfer across both sites in areas such as factory design, production methods and quality control processes since day one, and are proud of what has been achieved.
Simon said of the developments, “The UK market is saturated by scaffolding suppliers and we are lucky to have the UK Team and the backing and support of the wider business to compete and challenge anybody. Our product’s quality speaks for itself but it is our customer service that sets us apart – we are a people business.”
Stepup’s product range offers RingLock, CupLock, and standard tube and fitting scaffolding, but their OCTO® system is said to provide greater versatility with its 360-degree joint connection and ‘optimum’ node strength.
Simon added. “OCTO® is the quickest and lightest system scaffold on the market. It has been designed from the ground up and developed to work within the new-build housing industry. In the UK it’s a unique product.”
Simon said the Company’s expansion ambitions include developing a base in middle England. He is confident that the company’s service offering coupled with the quality of it’s products will help the business stand out and thrive in a crowded market.
“On a local level we have the Stepup support structure to make a huge difference to our customer’s who want the right product, at the right time, for the right price. We can influence the product’s design, manufacture and supply. Couple that with a face-to-face service from people who know scaffolding inside and out – we just cannot be beaten.”
“People like to deal with people, so we put people at the forefront of our business model to make sure the focus is on what the customer needs. We’ll adapt our model to suit that.”