Mitchell Barnes from RYSE 3D has become a double award winner at Business Desk’s West Midlands Leadership Awards. Barnes has been awarded the Company Leader of the Year (up to 50 employees) and the overall Leader of the Year titles. Once located in his mother’s garage with only a few small 3D printers, Barnes now works with 23 of the world’s leading hypercar projects with domestic and international sales passing £5M. The business is now looking forward to investing in automation solutions to help achieve greater efficiencies and expand its capabilities.
Barnes impressed the judges with his “eye for innovation and his passion for disrupting the 3D printing world.” He was also praised for his leadership style.
“Wow, just wow! Never did I think I’d win one award, let alone take away the main ‘Leader of the Year’ award. There was so much talent in the room, with many of my peers boasting lots more experience,” said Barnes. “The accolades show what you can achieve when you have courage in your convictions and are not afraid to push boundaries in the sectors you operate in. We’ve done this in 3D printing and are now one of the fastest-growing companies in our space.”
He continued, “It’s a real learning curve and I suppose I’m learning on the job. There’s no way I could do it without the team here at Shipston-on-Stour. We’ve doubled the workforce in the last eighteen months and that has been a task in itself.”
Last year, Barnes identified the company’s need for a large format FDM printer, but this required a significant investment. He set his engineers and additive manufacturing specialists to develop the company’s own 3D printer that could be used internally and sold around the world. A year later, RYSD 3D revealed LANDR, its high-power 3D printer with a flexible capacity that is ten times cheaper, three times lighter, and smaller than its nearest competitor.
“LANDR is now producing thousands of production parts every month at our facility in Warwickshire and external sales are increasing every month. It’s a triumph for UK manufacturing,” concluded Barnes. “The really exciting news is we are already developing an additional suite of LANDR products, which will be revealed over the coming months.”
