Our team has some wonderful and happy memories with Ali Slaymaker in the 15 years she worked for us in the export department at Helmsman Lockers & Cubicles. She achieved so much throughout her time with us. Everyone would describe Ali as a lovely and kind-hearted person who got along with everyone. We will always remember Ali for everything she’s done for us all and the company. Ali’s courage, strength and never say die attitude was typified by her determination to keep working till she finally into the hospital.

Ali was part of the family, working with us all during our time at Helmsman Lockers. Ali did so much for everyone. For all the memories we had with Ali, as a company we attended a charity race night on Saturday 3^rd February, in memory of Ali Slaymaker and Steve Morrissey, to show our support for the Macmillan Cancer Support and Brain Tumour Research, and to celebrate them both.

Family left heartbroken after loving mother, 49, and father, 50, die from brain tumours within seven weeks of each other – leaving their 13-year-old daughter orphaned | Daily Mail Online

Girl, 13, orphaned after both mum and dad die of brain tumours within weeks – Mirror Online

Exciting News

Helmsman proudly reveals that we have enhanced our service departments. This tactical growth is to show our commitment to delivering an excellent service to our valued customers. At Helmsman, it’s important for us that you receive the best service out there!

Services

Talking about our new service department we have 3 skilled service engineers and 4 service staff service vans, here are some of the services we offer:

• We are a locker manufacturer, so we can fabricate spare doors from any other locker company
• Over 1 million service parts are in stock, which are all ready to ship. Next-day delivery, all the top lock manufacturers catered for.
• We offer service contracts.
• Free of charge site survey. To assess your needs.
• A designated team of fully trained service staff. To help you find solutions to any issue.
• 99% of keys are cut in our factory
• We will not be beaten on price

In-house design team

We offer a house design team, where we take pride in helping our customers bring their vision to life when it comes to Lockers, Cubicles, Benches, IPS, and Vanity Units.

We are here with you from the start

After an exciting start to the year with some major investments, we are pleased that we have continued to develop our factory at Helmsman with more additions to our collection of machinery.

Our newest investment was in the Multicam Apex3R CNC Router, known for its superior standard in routing capabilities, with cut speeds of up to 1,950 inches per minute. With a variety of CNC machines on the market, it was important to Helmsman that we invested in a model which produced high-quality cuts, with easy, user-friendly controls.

The Apex3R CNC Router has many benefits, with a heavy, all steel tube frame, vibration is reduced resulting in an improved routing quality, and with a fast, programmable, automatic tool changer, the machine needs minimal human intervention. Meaning our team can use their time in other areas of the factory.

We have also installed a Casadei E550 Edgebander in the factory, providing us with additional abilities and technology that we did not have access to previously.

Our investment in the new CNC machine means we can produce high quality lockers and cubicles much faster, and the brand new Edgebander will further enhance our woodworking capabilities and allow us to expand our product range. Both of these excellent pieces of machinery have been purchased with the assistance of grant funding from the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership.

With these new additions and our previous investments in a new Powder Coating Paint System in 2021 and our Prima Power Punch Press earlier this year, our business is set to continue growing.

Take a look at our brand new Apex3R CNC Router in action below:

Take a look at our other company news here:

We’re pleased to share that after a successful 2022, we’ve been investing in a variety of business assets to make 2023 follow in its footsteps. We are constantly exploring ways to improve our products, service and customer experience, from the office, factory and transport perspective, and we begin 2023 with two important investments.

With help from the New Anglia Small Grant Scheme, we have purchased a brand-new machine from Prima Power. Our new Punch Sharp PS1225 is one of the best of its kind and will provide our team with additional capabilities for punching holes in sheets of metal during the locker manufacturing process. This new machine provides our manufacturing team with servo-electro punching technology and has a high tooling capacity (up to 384 standard tools).

Continuing our interest in the environment, another reason we chose the Punch Sharp is due to its energy consumption. Compared with traditional methods Prima Power’s machinery can produce more parts at the same energy. Our company is constantly exploring new ways to reduce our carbon footprint, including using the Carbon Neutral Laminate developed by BioCarbon Laminates.

Another great thing about the Punch Sharp is that is has a compact footprint in comparison to its competitors. Meaning we can continue to expand our factory facilities in the future and use the space to its maximum potential.

As well as expanding our fleet of machinery, we have also expanded our fleet of vehicles. Our brand-new van will be used by our installations team, with enough space to carry their specialist tools, any additional supplies and products needed for your installation project.

We’re looking forward to an exciting 2023, hopefully with more business expansion and some exciting projects along the way.

Office and Staff Lockers

Our office and staff lockers have been popular during 2022. Helmsman manufactured, delivered and installed 172 two compartment heavy-duty laminate lockers with welled locker doors at Bombardier Services UK. Our client, Pure Office Solutions Ltd chose the neutral Greenlam Primeval Oak solid grade laminate door colour to match the light aesthetics of the room. We also manufactured sloping tops, end panels and bench seating in the same laminate to create a nice flow throughout the room. Each bank of laminate lockers featured an integrated cantilever bench running across it, a great space-saving solution. Lowe & Fletcher camlocks with simple white number disks decorate each locker door, keeping it in line with the neutral look.

We have also worked with McCormick in previous years providing them with staff lockers, and this year their UK HQ requested some staff lockers and bench seating. Helmsman installed 164 mild steel 1 compartment lockers, with a bright but professional colour scheme of cherry, royale and yellow. Also included in the project were 10 double sided benches with coat hooks and ash hardwood slats.

The brand new coaches’ changing rooms at Ipswich Town FC were fitted out with Helmsman Lockers, Cubicles and bench seating. The choice of lockers for this project were bespoke 1 compartment laminate lockers, with bespoke floor to ceiling cubicles for both the showers and toilet. The project was kept slick by using a dark grey laminate from BioCarbon Laminates for the lockers and cubicles, as well as the vanity units and IPS panels.

Leisure Centre Projects

The Pyramids Centre in Portsmouth was our first leisure centre project of 2022. For this stunning project, we manufactured, delivered, and installed modern laminate lockers with both 3 and 5 compartments as well as Front Line cubicles, vanity units and IPS panels. The choice of laminate throughout the majority of the project was Abet Laminati in colour Walnut, with the cubicle partitions featuring a complimenting Light Grey, also from Abet Laminati. The changing rooms are now a warm and welcoming environment.

One of our favourite projects this year was St Sidwell’s Point, the first Passivhaus Leisure Centre in the UK. This brand-new leisure centre required a full changing room fit out, with both laminate and glass leisure lockers, front line and glass cubicles, bench seating, IPS panels and vanity units. As specialists in bespoke projects, we designed a new product for the project, creating a front line cubicle with floating leg and hidden fixings to promote a more aesthetic look. With a mix of Formica Elegant Oak and Dusty Jade, and Abet Blue Dust laminates, as well as RAL coloured glass, the project really flows with an earthy feel. The addition of Ojmar OTS Advanced RFID locks to the glass lockers provides a highly advanced locking system. It was great to work alongside Kier for this project, which has since won numerous awards.

Our project at Helensburgh Leisure Centre featured Fully Framed and Bespoke Front Line Cubicles, as well as Leisure lockers, IPS Panels and vanity units. We worked with a variety of laminate suppliers such as Formica in colour Storm, Greenlam in colour Blue Galaxy and Abet in colour Pearl Grey. Also included in the project were Ojmar Coin Return locks and wrist straps. The stunning waterfront leisure centre opened in September, and the leisure centre project also received an “Excellent” rating in an audit by the Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS).

We finished the year with a refurbishment project alongside Vincent Stokes at Central Park Leisure Centre in Romford. The changing rooms required Leisure Lockers, with 3 different coloured doors, and bench seating. The lockers came complete with coin return locks and wrist straps, perfect for a leisure centre changing rooms. The bench seating was a range of wall to floor benches, as well as wall island benches, with laminate slats to match the lockers and the rest of the changing room design.

Z Lockers

One of our most requested locker designs are Z lockers. Towards the end of 2022, we manufactured and installed Z Lockers for two projects in London. The first was at Paddington Square, an impressive new building above the entrance to the London Underground’s Bakerloo Line. 268 Z Lockers were installed in two sets of changing rooms, with Lowe and Fletcher Hasp locks and black laminate number plates. The second of our Z Locker projects this year was another stunning building, this time at 72 Welbeck Street, nearby Bond Street. The Z Lockers were manufactured from a clean Spring White laminate, with matching seat stands

Service Department

Our service team has had some interesting projects this year too. The first of which was at Riverside Leisure Centre in Exeter. Following our work at St Sidwell’s Point, the council asked us to return to replace some locks on some existing lockers from another supplier. Our team removed 290 doors and re-drilled to fix the new Ojmar OTS Advanced RFID locks. The existing doors with new locks were then re-fixed to the lockers. The new locks allow users to open or close lockers by simply pressing a proximity media: card, bracelet or Wellness® key against the doorknob. With a high battery life and vandal proof design, this lock is the perfect choice for a leisure centre changing rooms.

We then had an exciting project at Felixstowe Leisure centre replacing all of their locker and cubicle doors, making the whole changing room feel refreshed and brand new with a bright pop of colour.

2022 has been a great year for Helmsman, we have received a brand-new accreditation with Made in Britain and had some fantastic additions to our team. With a record breaking year we have also recently invested in some brand new machinery to help us continue being one of the UK’s leading Locker and Cubicle manufacturers into 2023.

We are pleased to announce that we have been accredited as a member of Made in Britain. Our adoption of the official, protected mark will help buyers recognise our range of locker and cubicle products as good quality, great value and British-made.

The mark also lets customers know that Helmsman is a trusted company that values transparency, sustainability and ethical business practices. Consumers are increasingly recognising the Made in Britain mark as a mark of confidence.

Managing Director Paul Gormley said “We felt it was important at Helmsman Lockers and Cubicles to highlight that our products are not only Made in Britain, but also to the highest manufacturing standards. We have always strived to produce long-standing, high-quality products, and the Made in Britain accreditation really highlights this. We look forward to continuing to be one of the UK’s largest manufacturer and installers of lockers and cubicles and showcase our membership with Made in Britain.”

John Pearce, chief executive of Made in Britain said: “We’re delighted that Helmsman Lockers and Cubicles has joined the community of more than 1200 British manufacturers. The more the mark is used and seen, the more it is recognised as a mark of quality. In addition to getting access to the official protected mark, Helmsman will also start to enjoy the many other benefits membership to Made in Britain brings, including support in sales, marketing, PR/comms and export. We look forward to watching them grow with our help and support.”

We are excited to work alongside Made in Britain, and expand our client base with their directory and marketing tools. Take a look at our page, where you’ll find a list of our products, images, descriptions, news and case studies.