A BALCONY and balustrade business founded by a 27-year-old entrepreneur has become a £1m turnover company in less than four years of trading.

Bear Metals, which has three sites, in Bradford, Birstall and Morley, was founded in November 2017 by Simon Mitchell, who saw a gap in the domestic homes market for design-led, high quality handcrafted products.

After seeing rapid growth in this sector, the company now has its sights set on securing more commercial contracts through its holding company SM Industries, set up in 2020.

Bear Metals has seen swift growth year on year, expanding from a table top business with one employee manufacturing Juliet balconies to a £1m turnover company with 14 employees and three manufacturing sites in Bradford, Morley and Birstall.

The company now produces a wide range of high quality glass, aluminium and steel products including its own bespoke balustrade system, Alaska.

Business founder Mr Mitchell began his first enterprise at a young age, selling sandwiches from the school car park and went on to set up his first business in powder coatings aged 21. He also runs businesses in the domestic electric gates and buy to let sectors.

His passion for business, work ethic and drive was inspired by working in the family business as a teenager - his father Nigel runs Panel UK, a Leeds-based office and shop furniture manufacturer, at which Simon is an executive director.

Bear Metals offers a five year guarantee on its handcrafted product range, which is designed and finished in-house using UK sourced materials.

Early success in the commercial market regionally has seen the company win a £150,000 project at a Ripon caravan park to supply balustrades for static caravans and a number of tenders are in the pipeline both regionally and nationally.

The business has also taken on international work including the production of bespoke stainless steel balustrades for containers on a water and air purification station in Rwanda, Africa.

Simon Mitchell, MD, Bear Metals Ltd said: “We are delighted to hit this significant milestone in our young business during a global pandemic and its testament to the hard work and passion of the entire team. We saw a big uplift in sales during the pandemic when customers were in lock down and sought home projects, but this is only a small part of our success story.

“We have the manufacturing infrastructure in place, as well as a fleet of vehicles with plans to further expand and grow our domestic business and to service bigger commercial contracts both regionally and nationally. It’s an exciting time for the business and we are already planning the launch to market of innovative, new bespoke systems and look forward to investing further in our growth plans.”