How we've helped Sports Metals

It could almost be said that Richard Japes stumbled upon success with his company, Sports Metals. Sitting around and thinking of ideas whilst in his previous role working within the steel industry, Richard dreamed of what he could create a product of his own.

“A greenkeeper came in from the local golf course to buy some steel, and I gave him some offcuts and he was amazed that I didn’t charge him. He came back a couple of days later asking if I could setup a product for him, which I did,” he said.

From there, Sports Metals and the extracut-brush® were born.

With clients across the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Germany and Australia, and enquiries from as far afield as Iceland, Sports Metals is a Cornish business on the move.

Amongst a range of turf management products their biggest seller remains the extracut-brush®, an attachment designed to fit onto the front of most golf and sports club mowers. The brush allows you to cut and brush in one motion, producing more clippings than a straight cut as lateral lying grass is stood up immediately prior to cutting.

“The greenkeeper at Lyme Regis Golf Club contacted us saying we should make him a brush for his mower, so that was more or less how the company started,” Richard said.

With the business now firmly established in the United Kingdom, the goliath that is the United States market is the next focus for Richard.

“At the moment we’re spending a grant to establish Sports Metals in the United States. Investing there allows us to create a company that we own, but one we can take a step back from. Something self-sufficient that stands alone,” Richard said.

Approaching the Skills Hub to increase online traffic and their professionalism across the digital domain, Richard recognises that training and development will be essential for future success.

“I’m not really qualified to do this job, so any additional training that I can find is incredibly beneficial. When you do training with other people it allows for you to bounce ideas off each other and can be a real eye-opener,” he said.

As the company goes global, Richard claims there is no place he would rather be than Cornwall. And no barrier whatsoever to doing business from the South West.

“Cornwall is a fantastic place for business. I have a unit on an industrial estate where I can guarantee next-day delivery for the UK. There are no cons to living here, I can see a lot of my customers who are local, and the lifestyle obviously speaks for itself,” he said.

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Skills Hub from October 2017 - June 2023 was part funded by the European Social Fund and match funded by Cornwall Council and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership. The project  received £2,885,993 of funding from the European Social Fund as part of the 2014-2020 European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme in England.