Pinpoint Manufacturing has been running strong for 16 years, and our customers know us for high-quality and reliable products. In fact, we are considered the leader in our niche market. But people often ask how did it all start?
As a motorbike enthusiast with a passion for leatherwork, our founder Sandra LaGrange, repaired motorbike seats, jackets, and saddles, crafting other random items out of leather. Sandra became very well known in her local area for her leatherworking talent.
Sandra began working with other people using her sewing skills for repairs to more than leather. At one point, she worked with Brian Jopling, making confined space rescue stretchers, and she and Brian became good friends.
Sandra obtained two industrial sewing machines and set these up in the spare room of her house to create her workspace. When one of the machines broke down, she needed to find someone to repair it. Finding such a person was not easy and is still difficult today, but she eventually found Harry, a retired sewing machine engineer. Harry and Sandra quickly became lifelong friends. Harry knew of some people who were retiring and looking for someone to continue making their lifting bags, and he asked Sandra if she would be interested in taking this on. After some thought, she decided she had nothing to lose, so why not. At this point, she began working on our Pinpoint lifting bags.
Sandra started with two sizes, the SLBT350 and the LLBT700. The fabric rolls were too large and intrusive for Sandra to work on in the house, but her friend Brian (from the rescue stretchers) offered a place she could work. The space was in his wife’s crematorium, not the nicest of places, but Sandy accepted and began cutting the fabric out there, transporting the cut patterns back to her home where the bags were sewn. She then returned the finished bags to the crematorium to have the plastic trays fitted by Brian. She stored the completed bags at the crematorium and distributed them from there.
To Sandra’s surprise, the customers and the business started to grow. Her customers wanted new designs for new projects, and Sandra knew she needed to get her own place to house her growing business, so she found a small unit in the Crofty Industrial Estate in Swansea that she could afford to rent. She moved all her machines and fabric into this unit and began manufacturing there. Not long after, Sandra needed an extra pair of hands and hired her first employee. The business continued to grow and became a private limited company in 2009. Continuing to thrive, Sandra soon needed more staff and more space. She initially rented the building next door and eventually bought a building just across the courtyard.
Over the next 13 years, Pinpoint Manufacturing has continued to grow into a well-established small business. Sandra now has 11 staff members, 2 factories and 1 reception and a company that runs like clockwork! Her daughter Jennifer is learning the ropes, ready to take over so that Sandra can relax and reap the benefits of her years of hard work with a lot of travelling!
