Rochdale brothers help in global Covid fight

Posted by on 21 Jun 2021

Three Rochdale brothers are at the forefront of a manufacturing business that is helping the fight against Covid-19.

Liam Serridge, 30, and his brothers Shaun, 33, and 26-year-old Dominic are all shareholders in Swinton-based S+B UK, which design, manufacture and install laboratory furniture and fume cupboards all over the world.

The brothers’ Dad Mike oversaw an MBO of the award-winning business in 2006 and gave the bulk of his shares to his three sons when he retired last year.

Both Liam and Shaun work for S+B UK as the International Sales Manager and Sales Director respectively and have ambitions to grow the business to £10m turnover.

Their youngest sibling, who is the captain of Rochdale RUFC, isn’t involved in the day-to-day running of the business.

S+B UK make science laboratory furniture and fume cupboards for schools, universities, and hospitals as far afield as China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar, Kazakhstan and even Rochdale Sixth Form College.

The company’s customers include Public Health England, AstraZeneca, The University of Manchester and University of Oxford, all of whom have been involved in the fight against the pandemic.

Liam, who went to St Cuthbert’s High School and still lives in Rochdale, said: “What makes us unique is the materials that we use to manufacture our products, they are more premium than what is found elsewhere in our industry.

“Our customers need the best quality facilities, so they come to us because they want the best furniture in the world.

“We also supply the Covid-testing laboratories and support hospitals with furniture required for important Covid research. We’ve maintained key worker status throughout the pandemic.

“Because of Covid we’ve not been able to travel overseas to install the products, but we quickly developed a range of installation manuals, tutorials and videos. We’ve also hired local installers all over the world, and interpreters where we’ve needed to, we’ve trained them on Teams and Zoom with a 24/7 back-up on WhatsApp. It’s been very successful.”

Liam’s uncle and cousin also work for the business, and he said Rochdale was a big part of the company’s success.

“We know where we’re from and we’re very proud of Rochdale,” he said. “It gives us a lot of pride when we show a customer in Hong Kong pictures of the installation in Rochdale Sixth Form College, and they say ‘wow!’”

S+B UK recently won the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade and currently employs 55 people and have a turnover of £8.5m.

“We want to grow the business in the next five years but our main focus is maintaining the reputation that our Dad and his partners Paul Bentham and Craig Norris worked so hard to establish,” said Liam.

If you want to learn more about S+B UK go to www.splusb.co.uk