Focus SB Chairman Gary Stevens is appointed an MBE

Our Chairman, Gary Stevens is recommended to His Majesty The King for the honour of Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in The King's Birthday Honours List.  An Export Champion for the  Department for Business and Trade (DBT), Mr Stevens has been recognised for his services to Manufacturing, International Trade and Apprenticeships. 

Formerly our Managing Director for a decade before he accepted the role of Chairman in January of this year, Gary is delighted to be recognised for this outstanding achievement. All of us at Focus SB extend our hearty congratulations on this well-deserved recognition.

Gary Stevens comments: ‘I’d firstly like to thank those who recommended me for this prestigious honour. When I received a letter on the 1st May in an envelope marked ‘On His Majesty's Service - Urgent & Personal’, my immediate thoughts were "what have I done wrong?"! Imagine my shock when I opened it and read that I was being recommended to His Majesty The King for the honour of Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) For Services to Manufacturing, International Trade and Apprenticeships in The King's Birthday 2026 Honours List.

‘I always thought this type of accolade was usually given to people from a different background to me. I was brought up in a working class family, living in council houses in Birmingham, and in a one-parent family environment from the ages of 7 to 12 due to the premature death of my father at 35. 

‘I didn't excel at school and other than sport I didn't take education that seriously. Being from Birmingham and the industrial heartland of the UK, the obvious career path for me when I left school at 16 with 4 GCEs was an Engineering apprenticeship. I applied to the plethora of household-name manufacturing companies like British Leyland, Lucas (who my father and grandfather worked for as tool setters) and GKN Aerospace. I had several offers and chose to join Midland Electric Manufacturing Company Limited on a 5-year Technical apprenticeship. 

‘I have been involved with manufacturing for my whole career of 47 years. I have attained engineering qualifications (HNC), Marketing qualifications (MCIM Diploma) and a Masters Degree (MBA), all whilst working, earning, raising a family with my wife and climbing the corporate ladder to MD of two SMEs with multi-million pound turnovers. Apart from the years I spent serving my apprenticeship, I have always worked for companies that are well over 100 miles from home. 

‘I have spent the last 10 years as Managing Director of Focus SB in St Leonards-on-Sea, near Hastings, before accepting a new role as Chairman in January of this year. I have commuted or stayed near the factories which are nearly 200 miles from home. I think conservatively I have travelled nearly 1.5 million miles for work, which is 60 times around the world, so it has not been without personal sacrifice which makes it even sweeter receiving this honour.

‘During my time as MD I introduced an apprenticeship scheme that has seen more than one young person join Focus SB per year. Apprenticeships, manufacturing and UK Plc have always been very close to my heart. 

‘I truly believe that apart from being personally proud to receive this honour, that this recognition is for UK manufacturing, championing young people in our industry and British manufacturing in overseas markets. I hope that my story motivates more young people from ordinary backgrounds to follow the same path and keep British manufacturing at the forefront for many years to come.’