British Stainless Steel Association
Annual General Meeting
5 April 2006
Director’s Report
When I spoke at the AGM a year ago I said that the measure of the success of the BSSA must ultimately be its impact on the stainless steel market in the UK. However the problem with this measure is just how to measure it! There is no doubt that 2005 actually saw a decline in apparent consumption which in part was due to destocking but may also reflect the loss of manufacturing (at least in stainless steel) to other markets where costs are cheaper. The problem is two-fold; first our understanding of what is going on below the market headlines is poor and secondly how is the effect of the BSSA to be recognised? I will return to these points later in the report but first let me review 2005 in terms of the financial position of the Association, the key activities carried out on your behalf and look forward to the rest of 2006.
Turnover for 2005 was virtually the same as 2004 at £223k. In fact underlying income from subscriptions was up 10% at £201k in line with the fee increase but was offset as no extra discretionary funding was sought from Outokumpu and income from sales of the Stainless Steel Specifications book (launched in 2004) reduced. The significant net income from activities included £4,400 from the Conference, £3,800 from the Lunch and £3,200 from training seminars.
Expenditure at £223k was up £5,142 compared with 2004, with spending on consultants the main contributor, up £13,000, offset by lower expenditure on website costs and no spending on the Sections project which was completed in 2004. The increased spend on consultants reflected cover for 1 day per week on the Advisory desk as Roger Crookes reduced his time from 4 to 3 days per week and a running project to revise and update the CPD architectural modules.
Overall a small surplus of £1,600 was made for the year which gives an accumulated surplus of £37,113. This does mean that the Association is on a secure financial footing and that there are funds available for investment to improve our service and to develop additional income streams.
So what have been the main events and activities of the Association during 2005? A year ago we held the Annual Lunch (albeit at a different venue) and in the autumn our Annual Dinner at Stratford Manor; both these attracted record attendances with more than 180 guests at each. On the same day as the Dinner we held the BSSA Conference, entitled Stainless Steel: Converting Opportunities into Reality, the first for 2 ½ years.The feedback on the Conference has been very positiveregarding the standard of the speakers, the venue and the administration. Attendance at 125 was disappointing and in particular that a significant proportion of member companies did not send delegates. However, we hope that the undoubted quality of the conference in addressing both the challenges and the opportunities facing the industry will encourage better attendance next time…probably in the autumn of 2007. Of course we must ensure it is relevant and interesting enough for our members to think it worthwhile being away from their business for a day.
If these were the headline events there was much else going on which may not be so apparent.
We gave another 50 seminars to architects and engineers up and down the country both at individual practices and at coordinated events organised by RIBA and Construction CPD. We know that architecture, building and construction is a growing sector for stainless steel but reaching the influencers is not easy especially given that there are over 5,000 practices in the UK, many of them very small. This year we are participating in two RIBA Roadshows (in fact the first one was held in London only last month and attracted an audience of 89) and we will experiment with presentations over the internet especially for smaller, more remote practices. I mentioned earlier that we are in the process of updating our suite of CPD modules and at the same time taking on board the lessons from Ruth Slavid’s (Editor of AJ Specification) excellent presentation at the Conference.
Last June, we held a very successful Fabrication Workshop jointly promoted with Outokumpu Stainless and TWI. More than 80 delegates attended and this has encouraged us to hold two more workshops this year.The first one has already been held at TWI’s Technology Centre at Port Talbot and despite not being a centre for stainless fabrication we still attracted an audience of 30. Some of the attendees will now be targeted as future members of the BSSA. The next workshop is planned for early autumn in the Midlands/North.
We exhibited at two events both promoting stainless rebar. One was at a major concrete conference held at DundeeUniversity and the second was at a seminar organised by the Concrete Society in Leicester. At both these events there were also papers presented on stainless steel and it is clear that one of the hurdles to more stainless being used in construction is lack of awareness and understanding of the material.
The usual work of the various committees and forums has continued. The Marketing and Technical Committee have provided good support both in putting forward ideas and helping organise activities including the Conference. The Rebar Technical Group has been an important reference point as the discussions about the development of a common European standard continue. This has been especially helpful as the UK is the convenor of the process under the direction of David Humphreys from the BSSA. We are hopeful that the new standard will be ready for review by the summer. The Industry Forum has met three times during the year and provided an opportunity for the participants to hear presentations on the stainless industry, the economic outlook, transport issues, training support and debtor management. Other groups such as the Surface Finishers Section and the ABC Forum have also met.
One of the key aspects of the work of the Association is the provision of technical advice and support. Through the Stainless Steel Advisory Service we have continued to answer questions about stainless steel in various applications and where to find suppliers, whether it be the steel itself, fabrications or services such as polishing, cleaning etc. Indeed an important landmark was reached during 2005 when we answered (mainly by Roger!) enquiry number 20,000 since the new BSSA was formed in 2000 which highlights the importance of this service. In fact the analysis of enquiries by type of enquirer shows a fairly balanced mix with 33%from manufacturers & fabricators; 33% from specifiers (e.g. engineers and architects) and 24% from steelmakers and stockholders. Information providers, researchers and end-users make up the rest. Importantly for members about 30% of enquiries present a sales opportunity.
When Roger is not answering calls he is also working hard putting new articles on the website and updating existing ones. There are now 196 technical articles on the website and a similar number of publications. Moreover, the BSSA can boast the most popular website pertaining to stainless steel in the world…just type ‘stainless steel’ into Google! The growth in traffic is phenomenal; looking at just one measure, the requests for technical article pages, shows there were 1800 per week in 2003, rising to 4000 in 2004 and reaching 5800 in 2005.
So now, what about the current year? I will describe briefly the key activities we have planned for the remainder of 2006.
First the website – I have already mentioned the growth in traffic. However, the site is showing its age both in look and feel. For the user too much patience is sometimes needed to find the piece of information they are seeking; for us in the BSSA, authoring is awkward and time consuming and increasingly the site does not provide the flexibility we now need. Plans for its redevelopment are currently being considered and the new site, when it is launched, will address these issues but particular care will be taken to ensure that the technical information, the core of the site, will be more easily accessed. One of the features that we can add is more news items and use these as a basis for a monthly emailed newsletter rather than the printed bi-monthly version. We will also take the opportunity to encourage visitors to the site to leave contact details in exchange for technical updates, seminar announcements, news items etc.
Secondly, we are planning the development of a more comprehensive training and education programme which will include a basic introduction to stainless steel for beginners (probably two open courses each year) and which can also be a lead-in to the Stainless Steel Specialist Course. In turn the Specialist Courseand the support we can give to participantswill be more strongly promoted. In fact we have just printed a new brochure and a marketing campaign will start shortly. In addition we will develop seminars focusing on particular end-use sectors giving an insight into their structure and the opportunities for stainless steel. As mentioned earlier, the fabrication seminar programme will continue with two events this year at different locations and, for the first time, we will hold a lean manufacturing workshop in conjunction with MICE/MetSkill (scheduled for 8th June). Indeed cooperation with other industry support bodies such as MetSkill and NAMTEC will be important to our success in this area.
Of course market development remains a key element of our strategy and we will use the stimulus of the Conference to develop our activities in sectors such as water, energy and infrastructure alongside our existing efforts towards architecture building and construction. An example will be a seminar (or seminars) targeted at the architects and engineers involved in the Olympic Games building programme; the first is being planned for the autumn of this year.
One key issue for the well-being of the Association is a strong and growing membership base; however over the past two years we have seen a net loss with current numbers standing at 90. Whilst this remains a good level, we must retain existing members and improve our conversion rate from potential members. There are sectors from the supply chain where our penetration could be better; for example raw material organisations such as ICDA and IMOA (the Nickel Institute have been a long-term member), medium/small stockholders and even amongst fabricators. Whilst we will continue to push strongly from the centre, there is no doubt that the recommendation of existing members can play an important part in encouraging new members. It is also timely to take stock of how we are performing in the eyes of our members; the last detailed review was back in 1998 (and led to the development of the ‘new’ BSSA). We will distribute a survey later in April and seek the views and suggestions of members to identify areas we can develop further.
A strong membership is important not least because it provides a significant proportion of the money we need to carry on the activities of the BSSA. However, we will also look to develop other sources of income, whether increasing advertising on the website, sponsorship of events or new products and services, including our own ‘Stainless’ magazine. Non-subscription income is about 10% of total turnover and a realistic target is to double this at least.
I mentioned at the beginning that one ‘problem’ is the lack of understanding of the stainless market, certainly at a sector level and the last serious study was carried out by Hatch Beddows back in 1992. Preliminary discussions have been held with the University of Sheffield’s Management School to explore the setting up of a two-year project that would establish a methodology for analysing market data on a regular basis and with a more detailed analysis of particular end-use sectors where significant growth in consumption can be anticipated. It is too early to confirm go ahead but this proposal has the potential to provide not only a sector by sector understanding of our market but also the prospect of identifying where BSSA activities are having a positive effect and ultimately a measure of our success.
There is one other significant change facing the BSSA and that is the decision by Roger Crookes to retire from the role of Technical Adviser and head of the Stainless Steel Advisory Service, the position he has held since the Association was re-formed in 2000. Undoubtedly, Roger has made a major contribution both to the new BSSA in its formative years but more importantly as the main provider of advice and help to the stainless industry and beyond. So I extend my sincere thanks to Roger for all his efforts. I am also pleased to announce that we have found a replacement, namely Alan Harrison. He has more has 20 years experience in the stainless steel industry including several years as a metallurgist providing support to end-users and several more working in market research and development; I am sure he will maintain the high standards that Roger has set. He will join us at the beginning of May.
Now I would like to thank the full-time BSSA team – Alison Murphy, Rakhee Karia and of course Roger – who have worked tirelessly during the past year and thanks to David Humphreys, Ian Riddoch and Shane McAleavey for their contributionin support of our activities. Thanks also to the members who have freely given their time to the various committees and working groups…without their efforts the Association just would not function.
Finally my thanks to the Council members for their advice and support throughout the year and a special thanks to those council members who are retiring at this AGM (Eddie Kirk, Richard Vick and John Vine) for all their efforts in the past.
© Nigel Ward
5 April 2006
1