Sheffield firm Gripple celebrates making one billion fasteners

A world-beating Sheffield firm is celebrating producing one billion fasteners.
By David Walsh
Published 11th May 2023, 13:09 BST
Updated 16th May 2023, 10:31 BST
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The Gripple is a simple spring-loaded fastener used to join wires - by ‘gripping’ and ‘pulling’ - but it has built a 900-strong company with six South Yorkshire factories, including three in Attercliffe. The first opened in Sheffield 35 years ago, when workers made 800 per shift by hand. Today, in the same time, machines make 25,000.

Gripple, founded by Hugh Facey, started out selling to farmers mending fences, today they are used in hundreds of applications.

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The firm had a genius breakthrough a few years ago when someone realised they could be used to hang things like lights and ceilings.

Gripple chairman Hugh Facey (right centre), global managing director Ed Stubbs, UK managing director Kevin St Clair, and operations director Charlotte Hill, with current and former employees celebrating the company’s one billionth fastener outside the company’s Riverside Works factory in Sheffield.Gripple chairman Hugh Facey (right centre), global managing director Ed Stubbs, UK managing director Kevin St Clair, and operations director Charlotte Hill, with current and former employees celebrating the company’s one billionth fastener outside the company’s Riverside Works factory in Sheffield.
Gripple chairman Hugh Facey (right centre), global managing director Ed Stubbs, UK managing director Kevin St Clair, and operations director Charlotte Hill, with current and former employees celebrating the company’s one billionth fastener outside the company’s Riverside Works factory in Sheffield.

Kevin St Clair, UK managing director, said: “When I joined Gripple in 2002, we were based on one site and manufactured around 15 wire joiner variants at a rate of 20,000,000 per year. Here we are 20 years later with six sites, and in 2022 we manufactured 70,000,000 units across 100 variants.”