March 21st 2024

Harry Wickham: A reflection on 2023 and an insight into 2024

2023 was a very important year for Gate 7, as it marked the launch of our new growth strategy.

How would you summarise 2023?

2023 was a very important year for Gate 7, as it marked the launch of our new growth strategy. We brought exciting new clients on board, secured Long Term Agreements (LTA) with a number of key accounts, grew existing customer accounts and increased our revenue by 10 per cent. Our team has worked very hard to achieve these results and I’m very grateful to them for their contributions to Gate 7’s success – everyone has played a part!

With growth came opportunities at Gate 7, so we were able to expand our team by 23% in 2023. It’s been great to welcome the new team members on board. In addition, we have invested in our marketing to help us boost our regional and national profile and support our sales strategy. One of the key projects we embarked on was the creation of a new visual style and website which was launched towards the end of last year. We wanted to reflect the company Gate 7 is today – a global specialist in the manufacture and supply of innovative industrial decals and printed components. We really feel that we have achieved that and we hope you like the results.

How do you lead the markets you operate in?

Having a global presence is vital. We serve our European customers from our site in Gateshead, North East England, and our US customers from our base in Greencastle, Pennsylvania… and with the Indian facility launching soon, we will also have a strong foothold in the Asian market.

Innovation is also key. We developed the SEVseries of Superior Engineered Vinyls to withstand the kind of harsh environmental conditions machinery is often exposed to… and these products have proved to be of huge benefit to our customers.

And we take our environmental commitments very seriously. In practice, this means replacing ageing equipment with more energy-efficient machinery and reducing the use of solvents in our printing process by 20 per cent through introducing latex-based ink.

We’re also planning to install solar panels at our Gateshead site this year too!

What challenges have you overcome?

Like many manufacturing businesses, we have seen the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine on our supply chain. For Gate 7, the main effect was four cost increases in just 24 months for our core raw material, self-adhesive vinyl. How did we overcome this? We reviewed our supply chain and sourced alternative suppliers, which helped us to offset the cost increase of the vinyl. We have stabilised prices for our own products and in some cases, reduced prices.

Supply chain issues have also affected our customers: raw material shortages in the construction and manufacturing industries have put pressure on businesses and they’ve needed to constantly review their building or production schedules. We have adapted to this through further developing our customer service team and processes, to ensure that we can react to changes in customer orders at short notice.

How are you shaping your future workforce?

Over the past 24 years we have built a team of knowledgeable and experienced employees, many of whom remain with us once they join the company. We have grown our team by 23% in the past 12 months and 35% of our team has been with us for more than 5 years.

We believe in nurturing and empowering our staff. Ownership, autonomy, accountability, guidance and trust are our watchwords. We’re also committed to employing and developing local talent and helping people to progress in their careers at Gate 7. This is helping us to shape our workforce, for example we have recently made two internal promotions, with Kayleigh being promoted from Production Planner to Sales and Ops Manager, and Louise being promoted from Sales Admin to Production Planner.

We’ll be actively recruiting throughout 2024 too, as more opportunities open up for Gate 7!

What does 2024 hold for Gate 7?

We’re excited! The success of our work for customers in India has led to us setting up a new manufacturing facility in Pune which will be fully operational by the end of the year. This will enable us to offer an even better service to existing customers in India, as well as providing a platform for growth in this expanding market.

We’ll also be welcoming new clients on board, supporting our current customers and expanding our workforce. It all adds up to further growth for Gate 7. We’re looking forward to what the future holds!

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