News: Rivals secure funding to move into manufacturing

Two rival South Yorkshire garage door supply businesses have joined forces to create a new manufacturing enterprise after winning backing from Yorkshire Bank.

Darren Baker of JB Doors, Rotherham, and Jeremy Baker of The Garage Door Company, Sheffield, have set their retail business competition aside to create new jointly-owned manufacturer, Alluguard Ltd, after gaining start-up funding from Yorkshire Bank's South Yorkshire Financial Solutions Centre (FSC) as part of its Investing for Growth initiative.

Seven new jobs have already been created – with a further eight anticipated within 12 months - by Dinnington-based Alluguard Ltd which manufacturers insulated garage roller doors and is set to move into 8,000 sq ft new premises in Rotherham this autumn.

Darren Baker, whose late father, John, founded JB Doors, which has 12 staff and a £2m turnover, in 1985, said: "In spite of being rivals, Jeremy and I get on very well. Ours is a relationship based on respect and mutual trust. We know how each other operates and how we can enhance this to create the best opportunities for our new venture."

Jeremy Baker, who founded The Garage Door Company which has 85 staff and a £9.25m turnover, said: "Moving into manufacturing has come about for several reasons. If installers get a poor product or service from manufacturers, it creates a greater risk that we shall do the same for our own customers.

"There are relatively few garage door manufacturers and the trend is to make the most cost-effective doors whereas we want to make the highest-quality doors we can with additional safety and security features."

Oliver Dean, business partner at Yorkshire Bank South Yorkshire FSC, added: "Both Jeremy and Darren are experienced and already run highly-successful companies and we were excited by their proposition.

"We're pleased to be supporting their new joint venture Alluguard Ltd which we believe will become a significant local manufacturing enterprise."

Alluguard website

Images: Yorkshire Bank