ISF August Round-Up: The Latest Feed Mill Engineering News
August has been a busy month here at ISF.
Celebrating our Yorkshire roots
Yorkshire Day gave us a good excuse to look back at where it all started. ISF was established in 1989 by Managing Director Iain Scott, working out of a small unit at The Raylor Centre with a team of around ten. Thirty-seven years on, we’ve grown to a team of 23, and we’re proud to still call York home.
A 150-year-old customer gets a modern upgrade
Some jobs come with a bit of history attached. Thompsons in Belfast has been feeding animals across Ireland for over 150 years, growing from a small grocer’s shop on Donegall Quay into Europe’s largest multi-species feed mill. When two of the mill’s original 1970s grinders needed replacing, they brought us in to design and install the upgrade. We worked alongside Altrech, Tietjen and Apex Electrical across two planned shutdowns.
Simon Mitchell from Thompsons summed it up well:
“Having deemed replacing our Hammermills near impossible, ISF’s experience and professionalism meant they were able to complete and deliver the installation. Communication was excellent throughout, from the design phase through to site installation and commissioning.”
One batch beats three: a mixer upgrade in Cumbria
We also shared the story of a long-standing Cumbrian customer who came to us with a familiar mill problem: too much double handling, and too much airborne dust. We installed their new 13-tonne Keenan mixer and redesigned the surrounding process. It included a new discharge and conveying system, an extended and enclosed holding bin, and discharge bellows that lower product gently to the ground.
The result was a 40% increase in production and a 90% reduction in airborne dust.
Technical expertise in action
One of our core values is Technical. It reflects our deep sector knowledge, practical thinking, and real-world solutions. This month, to reflect on this value, we shared two previous projects. A pellet press upgrade that improved reliability and extended equipment life without a full replacement. And a packing plant layout optimisation that increased throughput within the existing building.
30 years of ISO 9001
We’re pleased to share that we’ve passed our ISO 9001 Quality audit for the 30th year running. It’s a milestone that reflects how embedded our quality management system is in everything we do, and it means our customers can keep trusting us for consistent, high-quality delivery.
Life in the workshop
Behind the scenes, the workshop has been buzzing all month, with our fabrication team turning around new equipment for several live projects while our installers have been out on-site delivering and setting up machinery to tight schedules, including night shifts and weekend work where needed to keep disruption to a minimum.
We also shone a light on our elevators, one of the quieter workhorses of any feed mill, moving product vertically through the milling process, and shared a reminder of the bigger picture: the role ISF plays in Britain’s food supply chain, keeping feed mills running so farmers can rely on British-produced feed.
Meet the team: David Hukins
We also kicked off a new series on our social channels, shining a spotlight on the people behind ISF. First up was David Hukins, who joined us in 2001 as an Apprentice Sheet Metal Worker and has worked his way up to senior leadership. This year, David was jointly nominated for SHAPA’s Engineer of the Year award, recognition well-earned after 24 years with the business.
Looking ahead
Alongside all this activity, we’ve also been busy preparing our entries for this year’s York Press Business Awards, which take place in November. We’ll share more once we know how we’ve got on.
Our round-up in pictures
If you’d like to discuss an upcoming project, get in touch with the team.
