Iracroft: Prize-winning tube specialists

Is there anything better than the feeling of winning a competition?

Well, that was the way that Chris Way of Iracroft felt when he won our free photoshoot competition in July 2022.

We ran the competition alongside the launch of our second edition of The Metal Magazine, and it was Chris who was pulled out of the metaphorical hat. So well done Chris 👏 and thank you for entering.

After chatting with Chris to arrange our visit and finding out that he and his colleagues are keen photographers, we decided to create a short engaging company overview video to feature on their new website instead.

While on site, we also took the time to record a piece for the September edition of The Metal Magazine, as there have been some sizeable investments at Iracroft in the last couple of years; notably, their brand new powder coating facility, which is in the final stages of commissioning and should be operational before the year is out.

A powder coating facility of this size comes at great cost, and when I pressed Chris about the reasons behind the investment he said:

“We looked at our markets… we had to be careful on the investments that we spent, and we had to make sure that we were spending the money in the right place. We all felt, and have felt for a long while, that powder coating was the right option for us, as it enables us to complement our already existing zinc plating products. A lot of the markets and products and customers that we supply have powder coated elements to their machines, so to bring this in-house will be really beneficial.”

Iracroft are well set up for contract accounts, and it’s clear that the powder coating facility will initially be focussed on these same accounts. That being said, Chris spoke about another large customer coming onboard for trial orders, and that powder coating would be a service that this client would also be looking to utilise once operational.

What stood out to me, when on-site and meeting the team, was that this is a more old-fashioned business in the sense that they have a large and experienced workforce, and there are generations of families making up the team. However, their approach to business is anything but old-fashioned and they are investing in the business to stay ahead of the competition.

Also on the agenda is a push into video marketing for the business. Our brief was to create a short, engaging video which gave a taste of what Iracroft was about as a business, and Chris spoke candidly about this being new for their business:

“It’s something that we’ve not dabbled in previously, it’s not something that we’ve taken onboard. So, when the opportunity arose to potentially do the video with yourselves it seemed to make sense.

“We want to showcase our business to clients and to people that might want to come and work here. We’ve re-developed our website and want the world to see the quality of the products that we can produce in our state-of-the-art facility.”

I spend most of my time talking to clients about the benefits of pushing their businesses via social media channels and using video content as the medium with which to promote and engage with customers, so it was great to hear that Chris was keen to get on camera and talk with us rather than us just take some photos for them.

Having spent the day on-site and heard the plans first-hand, it is clear that Iracroft has a busy few years to navigate. With the new powder line, I think sizeable growth is inevitable.

I’m sure we’ll be back on site to take a look at some finished products in the near future, but until then, congratulations on winning our competition, and thanks for being great hosts.

You can connect with Chris Way on LinkedIn, and find out more about Iracroft’s tube manipulation, fabrication and finishing services by visiting their website: www.iracroft.co.uk