A Smith Gt Bentley was founded in 1954 by Alexander Smith on a small site in the Tendring peninsula to the East of Colchester, Essex. At first the company concentrated on commercial vehicle bodies but soon progressed to more specialist vehicles including generator sets. In the early 1970s the first experience was made constructing a small outside broadcast unit for the BBC which started a relationship which continues to the present day.

Other broadcasting customers followed and soon the business had developed a reputation for quality broadcast vehicles which stretched to many countries around the world. As the business grew a larger site was required and in 1988 the company moved to its present location at Frating, a green field 5 acre site where a new factory was erected.

In the 1990’s ASGB complemented its product range by developing hospitality vehicles for motor racing teams and in 1997 the first mobile medical unit rolled out of the factory.

This was the beginning of the co-operation with Vanguard  Healthcare, now a subsidiary of the Nuffield Hospital group, who have a fleet of over 30 mobile and modular medical units servicing healthcare needs throughout the UK and Ireland.

In Summer 2004 the business was sold to father and son team Barry and Simon Hare and since then the company has continued its expansion with the establishment of a satellite operation at nearby Weeley and the erection of a new 1,600 sq. m. factory at our Frating headquarters.

Now with over 130 employees and in excess of 5,200 sq. m. of production space we are among the largest specialist coachbuilders in Europe.

Employing 130 staff we have a very broad range of skills in house. In addition we operate an apprentice scheme for 5 young people each year giving us the ability to pass on and develop our skills bank.

• Design and Development using state of the art 3 dimensional CAD software
• Coachbuilding crafts in steel and aluminium including welding, metal-working and machining giving unrivalled finishing and attention to detail
• Carpentry and Woodworking
• Electrical Systems
• Electronics and Control Systems
• Air Conditioning using either Water or Gas Systems
• Acoustics
• Water Systems
  

WORKING AT ASGB

We design and build all our bespoke vehicles in-house in our purpose-built factory. Each vehicle is produced by a team of craftsmen who derive great pride and satisfaction from being able to see a project through from inception to completion.

We are always interested in hearing from people with experience in electrical and mechanical engineering, fabrication, sheet metalwork, carpentry, painting and finishing or design engineering. We offer an attractive package including pension and bonus schemes.

APPRENTICE SCHEME

We are one of the few companies in the local area to operate an apprenticeship scheme.

Each year, we take on approximately 5 young people typically aged between 16 and 18 to qualify as coachbuilders, electricians and carpenters. One day a week is spent at college and after four years and successfully passing an exam the apprenticeship is completed. We would hope to be able to offer permanent employment to all our successful apprentices.

For a full application form, please email us on info@asgb.co.uk.

A SELECTION OF OUR CUSTOMERS

Please click on the links below to see our units in action on our customer websites.

BBC	CTV	Megahertz
Vanguard Healthcare	Sony	Telegenic
O21 Television		Euromedia

We have customers from all around the world, including the following countries:

UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Norway, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Spain, Russia, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, South Africa, Swaziland, Seychelles, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Australia!

Barry Hare Chairman	Simon Hare Managing Director
Nigel Egner Operations Manager
Bob Hanks Design and Development Manager	Colin Jackson Technical Manager
David Newton Senior Project Manager	Peter Wiggins Quality Manager