April 14, 2026
JOINING Yorkshire Laser has been a return to his career roots for our new Head of Operations Lee Grant.
Local lad Lee, from Castleford, has had an extensive career in the metal industry beginning as an apprentice draughtsman for Joseph Rhodes and then moving into production and mechanical engineering before advancing into management.
Previous roles have included Welding Manager at Cameron Oil and Gas, Shift Manager at ATI, specialist metal manufacturers in Sheffield, Production Manager at Litestructures making aluminium structures and staging and also selling laser cutting and fabrication services for NG Bailey.
He joins us from gear manufacturers David Brown Santasolo in Huddersfield where he had been Senior Assembly and Test Manager for two years.
Lee said: “I’d worked with YLF from a customer perspective when I was with Litestructures so knew it was a good organisation. After working on a huge project for two years that was slow to progress, I was looking for a return to a faster pace of life when this vacancy as Operations Manager came up.”
As Head of Operations Lee has a team of four managers reporting to him and is responsible for all aspects of production at YLF including plant efficiency, delivery performance, maintenance, Health & Safety, Quality and HR. Production runs 24 hours five days a week.
“This role takes me back to my roots in terms of fabrication and lasering as well as bringing together all my past experience,” said Lee who is a trained Quality auditor, is NEBOSH qualified and experienced in Six Sigma process efficiency improvement techniques.
“I’ve been here about a month now and am thoroughly enjoying it. Everybody has made me very welcome and there are some great people here. I’m enjoying speaking to customers again and the satisfaction of getting jobs well done out the door.”
He added: “I’m getting to know existing ways of working, getting to grips with operations and problem solving as issues arise. I can see opportunities for improvement and am looking forward to implementing them.”
Married with two children and a dog, away from work Lee is a keen rugby league follower and former player who enjoys keeping fit and socialising.
