A quick history of Warren
Warren’s history... It really did start in a garage!
1990
Warren wins more new business and moves to larger premises in one half of the old village school in Feltwell, Norfolk. Richard and Sharon set their sights on growth.
Warren recruits its first employees: three of Richard’s former colleagues from another local engineering firm. It also starts investing in training and equipment.
1990-1997
Warren invests in:
1997
After renting half the school, then the whole school, Warren finally buys the entire building. Over the next seven years, it invests in:
2001
Will Bridgman joins his parents at Warren, having studied Business and Finance at University of Birmingham. Sharon is Financial Director and Richard is Chair and Sales & Technical Director.
2002
Warren achieves ￡1m turnover and Will becomes Managing Director.
2004
Warren invests in refurbishing a 30,000sq ft, near-derelict building on Fison Way in Thetford to create a modern precision engineering factory. It continues investing in advanced manufacturing equipment, including CNC machines, so its 32 employees can serve a fast-growing range of industry clients.
2007
Estee Ross (Sharon and Richard’s daughter) re-joins the business (having gained work experience there when at school). She starts on the shop floor before moving into accounts. After completing her CIPD she becomes Human Resources Manager.
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2009
Warren achieves ￡3m of turnover and now employees 50 people.
2014
Warren opens its second site in Thetford on Brickfields Way. This gives it a further 50,000sq ft of manufacturing, fabrication and assembly space, including room across both sites for shot blasting, laser cutting, and painting booths, as well as many other high-end technologies.
The Manufacturer magazine names Richard as one of the 100 most inspirational individuals in UK manufacturing – and Warren takes on its 100th?employee.
2015
Richard is made an Honorary Fellow of the UCS for all his work with West Suffolk College, schools and other universities across the country.
2017
Will becomes Chair. Both Sharon and Richard step back from day-to-day management but Richard remains closely involved in the skills development programmes.
2018
Richard receives an OBE for ‘Services to Training Young People’ in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
2020
Warren starts installing solar panels on its factories, as part of its strategy to be Carbon Neutral by December 2023. By the end of 2022 it has 827kW of solar generating capacity onsite.
2021
Estee becomes HR Director. The firm now employs 121 people, including 8 apprentices and 7 people on the Kickstart scheme that launched in September 2020.
Warren wins?Make UK’s Midlands & East of England Developing Future Talent Award?for its response to the lockdown education crisis and longstanding commitment to apprenticeships.
2023
Warren continues to invest in engineering skills, facilities and equipment to remain competitive and provide customers with excellent engineering services. As Richard always says,?“It’s what goes out the door that counts.”
New Warren branding and website launched.
...Hassle-Free CNC
1 年I vividly remember Richard as being the first person I knew with a mobile phone when he regularly visited our business. Seems trivial now, but at the time, it was seen as tremendously progressive and sums up the culture of the organisation from its inception to the present day. And oh what a phone... bigger than some of the machines you can buy these days. Now you would need to do a course in manual handling to be allowed to operate one I recon. Haha Congratulations Warren, what a great story.