A Royal visit to Special Quality Alloys, Sheffield

BVAA member, Special Quality Alloys recently opened up their doors to a Royal visitor. The company proudly welcomed HRH The Princess Royal to their site during her visit to the Steel City of Sheffield.

As you would expect, a lot of planning took place for this event but the foot of snow that landed on Sheffield the night before certainly wasn’t part of the plan. Fortunately, the visit still went ahead, which sadly wasn’t the case for some of the other Royal engagements in the area.

The snow was cleared, and the Royal entourage arrived safely much to the relief of everyone at SQA. The visit was certainly now going ahead!

Upon arrival, Chairman Alan Beardshaw and Managing Director Benn Beardshaw were presented to HRH The Princess Royal. Both Alan and Benn proceeded with an overview of the family company history which dates back to 1925.

A tour of the offices provided an opportunity for the commercial and production teams to meet Her Royal Highness who was very generous with her time and shared a few moments with many employees.

Elaine Kinnell, Export & Shipping Officer, “I was really pleased to get the opportunity to meet Princess Anne and found her very engaging. I was nervous about meeting her at first but found her manner put me completely at ease. She was keen to know how far and wide we have exported our products and asked me about the challenges we have faced since Brexit.”

Darren Pryce, Sales Director, “This was a fantastic day for Special Quality Alloys and our employees. In my 37 years working in the Sheffield Steel industry, this was the first time I had experienced a Royal visit and it will be something I will always remember. In the brief moments I shared with Her Royal Highness, we discussed our Queen’s Award achievement in 2022 and how much it meant to the company and the prestige it carries around the globe.”

With full personal protection including a hi-vis jacket and hard hat, The Princess was escorted through to the works and into the forge where she seemed to thoroughly enjoy watching the forge teams in action. First up, she saw the operators on the 10 & 20 CWT hammers forge nickel alloy sections of red-hot billet into rings.

Then onto a demonstration by skilled crews working the 70 CWT open-die hammer and ring rolling mill – both major investments for the company back in 2020. The Princess viewed safely from the purpose-built gantry whilst a stainless-steel blank weighing in at 200kg was moved from the furnace to the firm’s biggest hammer where it was flattened with ease. This was followed up by the ring roller making light work of an Alloy 718 job.

Her Royal Highness chatted with several of the forging operators who many have decades of  experience and long lines of family history in forging.

The tour was finally rounded off with a gathering of all employees to see the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the special occasion. A few words from Benn, Alan and The Princess who joked it was good to see a plaque that featured the correct date following all the re-arrangements being made due to Covid. 

The Royal visit follows a successful year for the company, which also saw them receive the UK’s highest accolade for business excellence, The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the category of International Trade. 

It was a truly memorable day for the company, and everyone involved!

For more information about Special Quality Alloys:

Tel:      0114 2434366
Email:  sales@specialqualityalloys.com 
Web:   www.specialqualityalloys.com

Published: 29th March 2023