What happened when we held a factory tour with Made in Yorkshire 

On a rainy Yorkshire morning in June, we opened our factory doors to over 40 members of the Made in Yorkshire network for an insightful behind-the-scenes tour and deep-dive discussion into the incredible transformation we’ve undertaken over the past few years. 

The event kicked off with a candid talk from our managing director, Matt Goff, before attendees embarked on the factory tour, before returning to a panel discussion involving our senior leadership team to learn all about our digital transformation journey.  

Matt’s presentation prominently featured Thurston’s remarkable growth, directly attributing it to the leadership team’s forward-thinking embrace of digital transformation. This significant shift in mindset – prioritising not only business expansion but also empowering employees through new digital tools and processes – has been the core driver behind our success, culminating in the doubling of turnover over the past seven years. 

Underpinning this transformation is our ‘Getting Things Done’ programme which enables the team to take ownership and proactively identify and drive digital adoption and process improvements. Alongside this, our Manufacturing Transformation Project (MTP), serves as the strategic backbone, a phased programme explicitly focused on aggressively digitising and standardising processes across all four of our sites. This project is simultaneously embedding a data-driven leadership approach and aligning company culture with our digital-first vision. 

The factory tours, led by four senior team members, guided attendees through our live working factory and provided an authentic glimpse into exactly how we operate on a day-to-day basis. No pretence; just a true reflection of Thurston as it really is. 

The tour included our newly renovated machine shop, which demonstrates the evolving integration of automation in our processes, a transformation delivered in partnership with Software as a Service (SaaS) company, WrxFlo.  

The WrxFlo team worked directly with our shopfloor team from the outset to implement the software, involving them in early discussions to ensure the system met their needs – not just those of our leadership. 

It was vital that any new solution worked for everyone. Our team are the experts and so we listened to their input and ideas. 

Since implementing WrxFlo, we’ve eliminated paper from our processes entirely, saving time on tasks like timesheets and significantly improving our sustainability. Today, our shopfloor is a completely paper-free environment.  

To further ground this transformation in practical value, we highlighted how Phase 1 of our Manufacturing Transformation Project (MTP) has delivered real, measurable benefits in three key areas: 

We’re now seeing stronger data discipline, clearer production accountability, and early signs of reduced waste and rework. And crucially, we now have a model to build on for Phase 2 – scaling more automation, integrating AI-led forecasting, and introducing predictive maintenance based on real-time equipment data. 

Our journey to transform our digital processes is only part of the picture. Our people and culture are just as central to achieving our goal of reaching £104m by 2027. 

We know that sustainable growth relies on a committed, capable team. That’s why we’ve focused on listening more, acting on feedback, and providing clearer progression pathways for employees across the business. Culture isn’t a ‘nice to have’ – it’s a strategic lever. 

One of the most powerful learnings we’ve had is the importance of honest, two-way dialogue. When feedback couldn’t be actioned, we explained why. That level of transparency has built trust and helped us bring the team with us – step by step. 

High on the agenda is also continuing to evolve our systems in partnership with WrxFlo, developing AI integration to help us better understand our data and support smarter decision-making across operations. 

We’re equally committed to CSR. Our partnership with BetterWeld is helping build local talent through funded training, and we continue to support charities and food banks in the communities we operate in – with more plans underway to involve our people in choosing and leading these initiatives. 

Involving our people is crucial, and we are very much still on the journey of making our culture the best in can be.  

Ensuring real two-way dialogue was a stand-out point from the panel discussion and giving employees the opportunity to share feedback on what needs to be implemented – but then also demonstrating faith by acting on it. 

Matt emphasised that progression pathways should be clear, and employees should feel supported in their roles and more importantly, their aspirations. 

Change doesn’t happen overnight, but if you communicate every small step, your team will be able to see where you’re heading and come with you on the journey. An important learning for us was to ensure that when feedback wasn’t actioned, we communicated why that was the case in an honest and transparent manner – a big step in gaining the respect of the teams across the business. 

Recruitment and skills remain a sector-wide challenge, but we believe our culture, fresh approach, and clarity of purpose will help attract the right people. It takes a team to succeed, and Team Thurston is ready!  

If you’d like to find out more about our products, career opportunities or overall ethos and vision, you can contact us here.