Go to... About Us Home/About Us John Reid & Sons Ltd Founded in 1919 by Colonel John Reid, the firm is still family owned and occupies a 4 acre site at Christchurch in Dorset John Reid & Sons (Strucsteel) Ltd (AKA REIDsteel) is a structural steel engineering company which has been manufacturing and erecting large commercial buildings, aircraft hangars, grandstands, bridges, process plants, car parks and many other steel structures worldwide for over 90 years. The key to our success is that we design, manufacture and erect all the elements of our buildings; from the steel structure, the roof and the cladding, to the windows and doors. Computerised Manufacturing Precision Computers are used so widely nowadays that they are hardly remarkable, but what is remarkable is the software that they run. We first started storing non-variable data on magnetic card eons ago to improve our design and estimating service. When micro computers first became available in the 1970s we searched for suitable software – finding none to suit our requirements, our engineers worked for some years to produce their own, with the result that we can now produce optimised structural designs and quotations in minutes rather than days, in most cases. What we have today is a system which is unique not only in the U.K. and Europe but in the whole world. REIDsteel CAD-CAM system We have continued developing our software to deal with most of the repetitive, time consuming drawing office detail work and can now operate the latest computer controlled drilling, punching and cropping lines in our works, directly from data programmed in the Drawing Office. This cuts out the usual three operations of measuring out and centre punching, known in the old days as “plating”. Drilled and punched steelwork is produced at a rate so phenomenally fast and with such accuracy as to make the old methods appear positively archaic. A beam which a few years ago would take 1½ hours to mark out and drill, now takes about 6 minutes or less – 15 times faster and much more accurate! Since 1919 we have shipped our work all over the World. Even now a large proportion of our production is exported to places as far apart as Iceland near the Arctic Circle and Raratonga in the South Pacific; to Russia, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Mediterranean countries, some of the mid Atlantic Islands and almost all the Caribbean Islands and Central and South America to its southernmost tip. RQSC Certificate John Reid & Sons (Strucsteel) Ltd are permitted to print this Logo having submitted to a Capability & Capacity AUDIT by the British Constructional Steelwork Association which amongst other things takes into account our assets, plant, skills, experience, turnover, financial status, contract references, Product & Public liability insurances etc. Because of our VERSATILITY we were given an A rating (highest) which qualifies us to design and make every form of structural steelwork, from light architectural steel to the largest aircraft hangars and heaviest industrial plant, as well as bridges. – More Information Archspan Patent John Reid & Sons (Strucsteel) Ltd have been designing, manufacturing and exporting wide span steel buildings for decades. You will understand that this entails making pieces that are small, easy to bundle and export pack; rugged to survive shipment; simple to bolt together on site; with excellent dimensional integrity so that everything fits in exactly the right way. In this way we could make grandstands with straight fascias; hotels with windows that fit; and in particular wide span hangars with correct tolerances for doors to fit and operate. This requirement coupled with all the export requirements led, through generation after generation of trial and adjustment, to the evolution of the REIDsteel Archspan frame. This revolutionary frame type is so successful that it has been patented (proof that it was indeed a new structural concept). This Archspan truss has proved a winner worldwide, where the ease of fabrication, transportation, galvanizing and erection has made REIDsteel unequalled at home and abroad for the design and build of hangars (and high bay warehouses, Arenas and other like structures). Directors Michael Reid M.B.E Company President … Timothy Reid (Chairman) < Drawing Office Director … … Simon Boyd Managing Director … Peter Reid Marine Director … Tim Cook Commercial Director … Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions (UK) Cookies BS EN ISO 9001: 2008 | BN EN ISO 14001: 2004 | BS OHSAS 18001: 2007 | CE Compliant classes 1 - 4 © Copyright 2021 JOHN REID & SONS (STRUCSTEEL) LTD, Strucsteel House, 3 Reid Street, Christchurch, DORSET BH23 2BT, England Company Registration No. 617773 | VAT Registration No. 186 2184 48 Toggle Sliding Bar Area