Dr Vanessa Brady OBE visits Focus SB’s factories
Sales and Marketing Manager, Steve Moss with Dr Vanessa Brady OBE
Our Sales and Marketing Manager, Steve Moss and all at Focus SB extended a warm welcome to valued customer Dr Vanessa Brady OBE, Founder and CEO of Interior Design Services Ltd (IDS) on Thursday 6th March in sunny St Leonards-on-Sea.
A factory tour across our three sites gave the multi-award winning interior designer and business consultant a detailed insight into our in-house electrical accessories manufacturing journey from start to finish. During the tour Vanessa met a number of our employees from the shop floor to our internal sales office.
Given demonstrations in metal component manufacturing and finishing, metal pressing, hand assembly and despatch, the Society of British and International Interior Design (SBID) founder handled quality components from the smallest screws to finished light switches and viewed products in manufacture such as Alisse socket outlets and the bevelled edges of our clear Prism faceplate style being flame polished by hand. Vanessa was shown where our solid brass and stainless steel raw materials are delivered to us from the mills, learning how we separate and recycle our metal waste. She saw finished orders being expertly assembled, labelled and packaged by hand using recyclable materials.
Our finishing expertise blends traditional artisan crafts with cutting edge design tech and advanced manufacturing technology. The in-depth tour gave Vanessa a valuable insight into the variety of finishing processes and length of time required to produce our bespoke made ‘wall jewellery’.
She viewed our electrophoretic finishing plant where we prepare, jig and degrease faceplates by hand and learned how we reuse and recycle chemistry in our degreaser via a closed loop system (degreasing removes contaminants enhancing durability of hand applied finishes). In our spray shop Vanessa learned how plates are sprayed by hand and how particulates are safely removed from the air. She also saw our robotic satining and polishing plant in action which enables us to offer matching switch caps to complement plate finishes to a high degree of accuracy time after time. Vanessa was also given access to view our Jordan bronze finishing area and learn more about our living finishes hand processes.
Vanessa commented: “I had such a lovely time learning about Focus SB as an innovative company from machinery, sourcing materials and the future of the company and its ethos, but importantly - you are a people’s company and you look after each person in a very special way. I noticed that everyone just happily performs their tasks, and they do it with interest. So many had found solutions for improvement in their area of work. In turn you have as a brand built such a fantastic loyalty, you should bottle it!”
Following Vanessa’s visit Steve Moss said: “It was an absolute pleasure to host Vanessa for a tour of our factory. Our team thoroughly enjoyed meeting her and were delighted by her genuine interest and enthusiasm. We would welcome her back anytime".
In 2024 Focus SB was honoured to achieve the prestigious SBID global lighting design award for our Ambassador Wall Light in our first ever lighting design in collaboration with Gwyn Carless at The Light Yard. The SBID International Design Awards® now open for entries.
Awarded an OBE for her services to Interior Design and the UK Economy in 2014, Dr Vanessa Brady represents the interests of interior design at cross-party meetings at the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Visit Vanessa Brady’s consulting/personal website to find out more: www.vanessa-brady.com.
