DCG Success Stories

Specialist joinery company Seamers aims to attain the highest standards in everything it does, and that includes the training of its apprentices.

As a former Derby College Group apprentice himself, Seamers’ managing director Richard Latham appreciates the value of a good apprenticeship and the career opportunities it can lead to.

He said: “I attended the college’s old Wilmorton and Kedleston Road sites and started at Seamers in 1981.

“Even back then I knew I was determined to make it to the top, so how could I expect today’s apprentices not to want to do the same and progress in their careers?”

Seamers, which celebrates its 150^th anniversary in three years’ time, has worked with Derby College Group for decades and currently employs five joinery apprentices.

Two are in their first year, one is in his second year, and two are in their third year. One of the third-year students, Sophia, is the company’s first female joinery apprentice.

Richard added: “Sophia is doing extremely well. She’s a hard worker, has excellent aptitude and gets on with the whole workforce.

“She is a credit to the business and it’s good to have her on the team. Women are still underrepresented  in our industry.”

As a bespoke company, employing more than 40 staff including subcontractors, Seamers sets very high standards.

Richard said: “The quality of our products needs to be extremely high so we prefer to train our own people. As a result of this we have a highly skilled workforce.

“We occasionally bring people in but it’s very difficult to find joiners of the standard we’re looking for. Our former DCG apprentices have gone on to be very good joiners and have had every chance to progress in their careers.

“We’re always looking to take on enthusiastic and talented people, so if the college has students that it thinks can be trained to our exacting standards, we will consider offering them a placement.”

Serving both the commercial and residential markets, Seamers works across the UK and Europe, providing bespoke joinery to the banking, retail and leisure industries as well as in prestigious homes.

Its office and workshop facility extends to more than 18,500 sq. ft, enabling joinery items to be manufactured in all shapes, sizes and quantities. Everything is completed in house to ensure excellent quality control.

Seamers offers its own fully comprehensive design package, providing fully detailed working drawings and samples for approval before manufacture.

It manufactures to customer’s specific requirements from either their architect’s or designer’s drawings, with installation carried out by its own highly qualified team.