The Rural and Industrial Design and Building Association (RIDBA) is the leading trade association for modern agricultural and industrial buildings in the UK.
Every other year, RIDBA holds an awards ceremony to recognise excellence in the industry, recognising the very best in rural and industrial buildings and providing an excellent platform for RIDBA members to showcase their best projects.
This year S&A Fabrications entered four projects to the awards and were shortlisted for all four of them. At the awards ceremony in Manchester, S&A won two of the prestigious awards, including one for our work building the new shop extension at Mainsgill Farm on the A66.
The other project was a livestock building in Lincolnshire which won Livestock Building of the year for its effective use of space and internal design.
Simon Pelly, who has worked for S&A for 15 years and bought the company along with his business partner Jonathan Kirk in 2018, said “the RIDBA awards are the yardstick in the industry for recognising and rewarding excellence. I’m delighted to have our projects recognised again and it is testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff here in Barnard Castle and the build teams across the UK put in”.
“Our livestock buildings have been recognised for many years, but the project at Mainsgill Farm shows just how versatile steel framed buildings can be and how good they can look with the right finishes and a keen eye to detail.”
In another awards ceremony, we were announced as the Manufacturer of the Year (under £25m) winners at the Insider Made in North East Awards.
The Made in North East Awards celebrate the best and most innovative manufacturers in the region and S&A, who design, manufacturer and erect steel framed buildings throughout the UK from our base in Barnard Castle, took the award as the judges were impressed by us constantly looking to innovate and improve our products, as well as our commitment to never cut corners in order to save costs.
Simon Pelly, said it was a great honour to accept the award “we work hard at S&A and at times we are really under pressure, especially in the last twelve months, having to find new working practices to deal with the pandemic. It’s therefore hugely satisfying to win an award like this that recognises not only our passion for our industry, but also for the North East where we’ve been based since we were formed, back in 1978. We’re very proud of our staff in all departments, who continue to push the business forward and ultimately helped us win this award”
In 2020 we invested heavily in new software, processes and a 384sqm extension to our factory, to house new machinery. We currently employ over 40 people in Barnard Castle, where we manufacture all of our steel framed buildings, which are then distributed and erected around the country.