Our history is important to us and we’ve continued to incorporate our charitable roots into our current company. We’re a modern high-tech business with an impressive history. Our ethics underpin our service and we strive to be a quality window and door manufacturer and installer with a difference.
Supported by Birmingham City Council, we are one of their trade manufacturers, suppliers and installers of choice for windows and doors. Our trade products are all of the highest quality and offer everything you could need from energy efficiency to aesthetic value and effective security. We want to develop relationships with other companies across the Midlands and bring our unique approach to your business and sector.
Shelforce was established in 1839 as a workplace for visually impaired people as part of the Royal School for the Blind. The company was first set up to provide the blind with paid work and training in the manufacture of items such as brushes, baskets and mats.
We began relocating to our current premises in Erdington in 1981. A wider brief was established to begin employing people with different disabilities and our name was changed to The City of Birmingham Sheltered Workshops of the Disabled in Erdington. Coventry University began to work on images and literature for us and the name Shelforce was born.
We were lucky enough to have The Princess Royal, HRH Princess Anne at our official opening in 1984. Bed manufacturing, engraving and woodwork became part of our business and we began making gates and fences for Birmingham City Council.
We refocused our aims on providing an employment stepping stone opportunity for people with a wider range of disabilities.
Window & door manufacturing began in 1992 and we recruited candidates from the commercial market for key roles. Many skills used for woodworking and bed making are transferable into the production of PVCu windows and doors. This quickly became our main focus and the production of other items ceased.
Our restructure saw us reduce our premises from three to two to allow us to work more efficiently.
By using a more efficient factory layout we saw our output efficiency increase by 759% over three years.
These changes over the last few years have seen us achieve impressive growth and our sales revenue has increased by 323%.
Case Studies
Shelforce manufactured and supplied new aluminium windows for Birmingham's first modular home
Shelforce supplied new windows for 1000 council properties in Birmingham
We have accreditations from a range of associations to prove the reliability of our service and the performance of our products.
We have an impressive history which stretches back to 1839 when we were a workplace for the visually impaired.
