A NEW era is about to dawn at J Stell & Sons Ltd which has been making cardboard tubes in Keighley since 1872 - and from its current site for the past 120 years.

The firm, still owned by a fifth generation member of the Stell family, is set to move to a new state-of-the-art base at the former Oakworth Joinery site.

According to managing director Richard Guest the move will increase operating efficiency and enable the business to 'fly'.

Stell, one of Keighley’s oldest businesses, secured a £4.2 million finance package from HSBC for the new development, which will also create new jobs.

The business, whose sole shareholder is chairman Vaughan Stell, specialises in producing cardboard cores and tubes, packaging and reels for a wide range of industry sectors.

The company was founded by John Stell, along with his brother-in-law Joseph Jackson and family friend Charles Lister as a woolcombing and paper tube making business.

According to a company history published to mark its 140th anniversary in 2012, Stell's versatility and ability to evolve and adapt has ensured its longevity.

The Stell family , who took ownership of the business following the deaths of Lister and Jackson in 1889 and 1891 respectively, have maintained a strong commitment to Keighley and to employing local people. The firm has many long-serving employees and a tradition of having several members of the same family on the payroll.

"When we were looking for a new site my brief from the family was clear - find somewhere as near to Keighley as possible. And that meant that Skipton would have been too far, " said Richard Guest, who is the first non-family member to run the company after joining as operations director six years ago. He was brought in to improve production processes and to enable family members to plan for retirement.

"It showed a willingness to change and maintained the tradition of adapting that has been part of the company's tradition and continued success," he said.

Stell designs and makes hundreds of millions of tubes a year and prides itself on not turning anyone away. It serves niche markets and operates on tight lead times - an average of a week.

It used to develop and build much of its own production equipment and while it retains some of the older kit for specialist processes, it has invested more than £1 million in recent years on new equipment, including electronic touch screen technology.

"We now blend the new and old technology. It's not about long-run production lines but a series of machines or pairs of machines working together, depending on volumes and lead times We have a guy whose job is to plan the whole factory – every job we get he has three or four options, " said Richard.

The firm makes tubes of between 6mm and 300mm in diameter in a variety of thickness and finishes for diversified niche markets - just as it has always done .

Richard said: "We have a track record of saying yes; coming up with the goods , including making some quirky tubes. We look for customers wanting outstanding service, the best quality and ridiculous flexibility. If you want 5,000 of one, 2,000 of something else and 50 of another by tomorrow – then fine. We're totally geared up for a quick response to bespoke orders.

Virtually all our tubes and cores are made to order. One customer in the printing sector last year bought over ten million cores (cut off tubes) all on 48-hour notice. He could have any quantity and any width."

Stell is a 24/7 operation with 90 employees working various shifts. Turnover has grown from £5 million six years ago to £8 million this year – driven mainly by winning extra business from customers in sectors such as printing; label makers; textiles; fireworks, defence, adhesive tapes; medical products, packaging and construction.

Stell also makes products such as caps, bobbin ends; embossed, printed, spiral and slit tubes and folded ends. Some tubes are waxed and waterproofed.

Products range from fancy candy tubes for Blackpool rock to shotgun cartridge liners and components for artillery shells " The end uses are almost endless and sometimes we don't know what we're making tubes for. But what we do know is that customers are always looking for shorter lead times. The benefit for us is that when a customer gives us a try they usually come back," Richard observed.

Stell has more than 600 customers, with the top 50 accounting for more than half its turnover . Because of storage difficulties, larger customers tend to place regular orders rather than buy in bulk - ensuring a high level of repeat business.

Ninety eight per cent of sales are in the UK , partly due to the high shipping costs of products that weigh little but take up a lot of space but small volumes have been sold in Norway, Holland, Iceland, Australia and Greece.

Richard said: "The difficulty and cost of shipping our products any distance has been a barrier to exporting but has also protected us . European tube makers don't see the UK as an attractive market – the Channel has been a barrier to imports. China and India are not going to bring stuff here when it costs £100 a pallet to transport cores costing 2p or 3p each. "

While the new site will be similar in area to current existing base at around 100,000 sq ft, there the similarity ends. Home Mill has been expanded on an ad hoc basis and operates on three floors with goods having to be moved back and forth.

Richard said: "We’ll have the site and layout to add to our know-how and a bigger product range than anyone in the UK. The move will kickstart a whole new era for this business, transforming our operations from an iggledy piggledy set-up to a modern efficient layout."

Several banks were interested in lending the money to expand. While they asked challenging questions all were enthusiastic about the expansion plans and impressed by Stell's business record and history of prudent financial management which had left it cash rich and debt free.

"The new base will put us in a position to grow the business by another 50 per cent over the next few years We have already created five new jobs this year, including a second engineering apprentice, and we will need more staff going forward.

"Our employees are excited at the move and we will also be bringing a building that had fallen into disrepair back into use.

"We have grown by 60 per cent through a recession so it's not hard to imagine what we'll be able to achieve once the economy really takes off. How big do we want to get? How aggressive do we want to be? It’s up to us.

"We will move in 2015, put our foot on the accelerator and we’ll fly and grow and grow," said Richard.