The Market Bosworth-based company was one of the first aerospace suppliers selected for Sharing in Growth in 2013, when its ambitions were to overcome risks caused by the oil crisis by expanding its aerospace export business.
Since then, with support from Sharing in Growth, it has redefined its strategy to focus on people, customers and new business development. As a result, JJ Churchill has increased turnover by almost 30% from 2015/16 and now has plans to hit more than £38 million and add around 20 new jobs by 2020. Consequently, the company has been able to make a £10 million investment in plant and equipment, mostly Starrag machining centres.
The Sharing in Growth programme at JJ Churchill’s represented a £1.1 million investment from the Regional Growth Fund, with the company more than matching that in time spent on business transformation. Sharing in Growth does not require any cash input from beneficiaries, just a commitment to dedicating time to improvement activities. JJ Churchill is now looking to continue its relationship with Sharing in Growth, in order to maintain access to the programme’s expertise.
Said executive chairman Andrew Churchill (pictured on the left in the image): “Sharing in Growth is an excellent example of the government and engineering working together to make our industry more effective, more efficient and future-proofed. This is increasing opportunity, sales and jobs.
“Working with Sharing in Growth, we have invested in our people, our efficiency and our technology, so that we can delight customers by delivering quality products in full, on time and with world-beating competitiveness. Last year, we signed one of our biggest ever long-term agreements worth around £70 million to supply precision-machined blades to Rolls-Royce. I don’t think it gets any better than that.”
Examples of practical business transformation made at JJ Churchill include improvements to employee engagement, the visibility of mission, vision and values, business planning, the new product introduction process, supply chain management, cost-reduction, shopfloor lay-out, processes and visual management, and staff were trained in Business Improvement Techniques NVQs.
Sharing in Growth has now helped aerospace suppliers across the UK secure more than £3.6 billion in contracts. This is equivalent to around 30,000 man-years’ work or securing almost 7,000 high-value jobs. The not-for-profit programme is so successful that it is providing a 60:1 return on public investment, with the majority of companies on the programme growing at five times the rate of their industry peers.
Said Sharing in Growth CEO Andy Page: “We are delighted to have made such a positive impact on a company with the proud engineering heritage of JJ Churchill. We know that tackling the UK’s lagging productivity is a multi-faceted challenge that requires a team like Sharing in Growth, which boasts more than 2,000 man-years of industrial expertise. We have the scale and intensity required by the advanced manufacturing sector as it faces the challenges of industrial digitalisation and Brexit.
“Investment in new technology or capital equipment per se will not improve productivity. Sharing in Growth is creating a virtuous growth cycle where improved productivity and competitiveness wins contracts which, in turn, provides the funds to invest in people, technology and growth to win even more business. Our exceptional results are testament to the learning capacity of ambitious supply chain companies like JJ Churchill.”
There are more than 60 companies on the Sharing in Growth programme across the UK. Set up by industry in 2012, Sharing in Growth is endorsed by Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing, Bombardier, GE, GKN, Leonardo, Lockheed Martin, MBDA, Rolls-Royce, Safran and Thales.
