The 12 months of 2020 have been among the toughest our generation has known. The coronavirus pandemic has tested the resilience of even the most established businesses, and sadly many have been forced to close. So, imagine the pressure put on a new start business, one which launched just prior to lockdown. Chris Trotter, commercial manager at Shildon-based Northern Metal Recycling, explains how his employer has managed to ride the wave of the virus and grow to a team of 10 less than 10 months since it was set up.
It is fair to say none of us knew what lay ahead when the ‘C’ word first began to be talked about at the start of 2020.
Little did we know that as we approach the end of the year, we’d still be in the grip of the global coronavirus pandemic, one which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide and left thousands of people out of work and many businesses in tatters.
For the team at Northern Metal Recycling, COVID-19 presented us with a whole different challenge.
As a business that had just been launched by owner Jordan Bell, who had committed over £1.5m to get the venture off the ground, we were left wondering how we were going to be able to overcome the barriers we were presented with, including a 12-week national lockdown.
Anyone in business knows the first 12 months are the hardest – when those 12 months are during some of the toughest times the nation has faced, it’s not hard to understand why we were thinking we were going to have our work cut out.
Thankfully, Jordan had managed to attract a
team of experienced industry professionals,
who shared his vision of establishing a
business that offered a one-stop solution
for companies, offering both collection and
processing to clients, particularly those
within the engineering and manufacturing
sectors.
Quickly word spread about the launch
of Northern Metal Recycling, new clients
came on board and the growth projections
Jordan and I had set out in the planning
stages were back in play.
Today, there are 10 of us working for the
company and our reputation for excellence
is quickly being cemented.
Whilst we don’t know what 2021 has in
store as the coronavirus pandemic is still
very much part of our lives, we do know
that as a new business, we are confident
that our ambitious plans for growth will be
achieved.
