Bringing Defence Discussions to Our Doorstep

24th April 2025

We are delighted to have hosted a Make UK Defence Member Event at our Team Valley headquarters on April 9th, 2025.

The event ‘Fit for Defence – Winning Work in the Defence Sector’, which was open to fellow Make UK Defence members, aimed to provide an insight into working with primes and tier one suppliers, guidance on accreditations and ESG, and current and future opportunities in defence manufacturing.

Speakers included Kelly Maddison and Steve Hill of Make UK Defence, Helen Parkins of Responsive Engineering Ltd, Janet Albion and Simon Wadey of MBDA, and Ian Greenaway of KNDS UK.

Partners of the Make UK Defence Fit for Defence programme, which was developed to improve business performance in the sector, were also in attendance to showcase how they could support members: these included Day 1 People; Horizon Works; Inspired PLC; Make UK Environment, Health and Safety; and Make UK Employment Law and HR.

In addition, Nick Betts, our Group Business Development Director, spoke about: our decades of heritage in engineering, how we’re helping to train the next generation of engineers, and our work with defence primes and in supporting major companies with British engineering expertise. He also shared an insight into our ESG activities, as well as the large-scale investments in our Gateshead site – and discussed what we have planned for the future!

Nick said of the event: “The Fit for Defence event – from the networking to the speaker sessions and factory tours – was a huge success!

“I would like to thank all delegates, exhibitors and speakers, and most importantly Make UK Defence for hosting their event at our site. It provided us with a fantastic opportunity to showcase our world class precision engineering capabilities and our state-of-the-art facilities to Make UK Defence members from across the UK.

“It was also wonderful to facilitate key conversations amongst the defence industry and its supply chain and bring those discussions to our very own doorstep.”

With deep-rooted expertise in the defence sector, we deliver mission-critical solutions that meet the highest standards of reliability and precision. Every component we produce is built with one purpose in mind: to perform flawlessly when it matters most.

Our advanced CNC capabilities meet MOD standards, we are JOSCAR accredited and a proud Make UK Defence member.

Find out more about our experience in the defence industry here.