00:00I'm Kate Robertson-Hart. I'm the Marketing Director here at ACS Steelers Steel Fixings and we're at our manufacturing facility in Leeds.
00:08We are the UK's leading masonry facade solutions partner.
00:13We design and manufacture for mostly high-rise construction.
00:18That might be masonry support, brick slip systems, wall ties, lintels, anything that you find within the cavity of a building.
00:26The Steel Soldiers campaign has been running for five years now.
00:30It started out with a really simple idea to help our customers and staff commemorate remembrance.
00:37And we started out by just creating a really simple silhouette to send out to our customers, give to our staff.
00:45And then over the last five years, it's grown into a fully national campaign where we now raise money for the Army Benevolent Fund.
00:53We start out with a design, essentially an idea for a shape.
00:58And this year, that idea came from a local secondary schoolgirl called Elizabeth.
01:05She actually designed a slightly different version to the one that we're using, but we adapted it slightly.
01:11And it's a silhouette of Queen Elizabeth II back in World War II when she was working in a territorial auxiliary service.
01:23And she's taking the salute there.
01:25So we've taken Elizabeth's idea for Elizabeth.
01:31And we created her shape through our design software.
01:36It then goes on to our equipment, our lasers, which actually cut sheet metal into the correct shapes.
01:46And then we take it into our welding bay where our apprentices are welding the designs together.
01:52We have a really robust and active apprenticeship program.
01:58So that might be from the welders who are making the steel soldiers, through to accounts, through to our technical drawing team, who do all the really intricate designs.
02:13And we've had many, many members of staff go through that apprenticeship program who are now in really senior roles.
02:19And every year we take in a new cohort, we work with the local schools, colleges and universities to give people, especially young people, the best possible experience,
02:31get them the qualifications they need, and they can also earn whilst they learn.
02:36Elizabeth was really thrilled, you know, I think from taking something on paper to physically seeing it in its physical form,
02:44but then knowing that that is going to help generate lots and lots of donations for the Army Benevolent Fund,
02:51which will make so much different to service personnel and their families.
02:56She was really, really pleased.
02:58And thank you.
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