17/02/2026
An insight from Founder & Director Rowley Boulton of Rase Steels into the last 40 years of Rase Steels, from the beginning…
“In 1986, I decided to take the leap and resigned from RH & B Moncaster in Louth. After speaking with several companies, I had worked with during my time there, many agreed to give me the opportunity to supply them with materials. That encouragement gave me the confidence I needed to go out on my own.
I secured a £10,000 overdraft facility from the bank, with my mother kindly standing surety. As it turned out, I received two goods orders for sheeting in my very first week of trading, meaning the overdraft wasn’t needed at all.
I began operating from the old Station Goods Yard in Market Rasen – where Tesco now stands – working with consignment stock from BRUNEL STEEL SERVICES LIMITED. Those first two orders were placed by good friends, David Chamberlin at Sixhills and Nev Ward from Reepham.
From the earliest days, this was very much a family effort. My wife, Judy, and my mother would come in each week to clean the office. It truly was a family unit from the very beginning.
When my eldest son Matthew left school, I encouraged him to work independently and he started MB Fabrications. Later, we joined forces and worked together.
My youngest son James, earned a place at Lancaster University, but I persuaded him to defer for a year to work with us at Rase Steels. The arrangement worked so well that university was eventually set aside.
With the support of my sons and the strength of our family working together, Rase Steels grew and prospered to become Rase Steels Construction and Civils Limited which is now located at our site on Gallamore Lane Industrial Estate — and the rest, as they say, is history.
It’s fantastic to be a thriving local business in Lincolnshire, but it’s equally rewarding to have supplied projects much further afield — from Stornoway in the far north of Scotland to Gibraltar in the south, including supplying sheet materials for the nuclear submarine dock there, which I would personally consider one of my greatest achievements of sheet supplies.
Today, we have a far larger team than in those early days. Our staff have been incredibly loyal and dedicated over the years, and every one of them plays an important part in the business.
There are many people to thank over the past 40 years — especially the suppliers who trusted me from the very start. Without our hardworking team and our loyal customers, there would be no business. For that, we owe them our sincere thanks.”