Leaderflush+Shapland has restructured into four distinct product divisions and unveiled a new corporate identity.
The moves at the UK’s biggest bespoke and performance-rated door manufacturer follow several years of rapid growth and development. Speaking at its Langley Mill, Nottingham headquarters, chief executive Roy Wakeman said they were aimed both at highlighting the company’s expanded product offer and reinforcing its marketing effort. The streamlined structure, he added, also ‘allows for future expansion’.
Under the new organisation the business as a whole will be known as LS Group Ltd, a name coined in 1998 when Mr Wakeman headed a leveraged management buyout of Leaderflush+Shapland from Whitecroft plc.
The various divisions of the business – which employs 550 people at factories in Langley Mill, Sheffield, Barnstaple and London – will also adopt the ‘LS’ brand.
LS Leaderflush Shapland will concentrate on flush engineered doors and doorsets, including ‘value engineered ranges adhering to the Egan ethos’ and ‘truly bespoke products’, while LS Longden will offer traditional panelled doors, doorsets, and joinery for the heritage and quality housing sectors.
Following its acquisition of MultiSecure Ltd in 2000, the group is also a leading timber and steel security door and doorset manufacturer and this arm will now operate as LS Multisecure.
The fourth product division, LS Primary, focuses on ‘quality doors at affordable prices’ sold predominantly online and by mail order through the merchant sector to builders, shopfitters and contractors.
‘The Primary business benefits from a major upgrade of our online “shop”,’ said Mr Wakeman. ‘We previously outsourced this operation, but we now have a dedicated stand-alone server which gives us far greater control.’
LS Group, which reported profits of £4.4m on sales of £37m in the year to March 31, has also recently invested heavily in machinery and IT systems.
Following the restructure, Mr Wakeman predicts further expansion through organic growth and, possibly, acquisition and more links with producers elsewhere in Europe.
