History

Remploy was set up under the 1944 Disabled Persons (Employment) Act by Ernest Bevin, then Minister of Labour. The company was formally founded in April 1945 and the first factory opened in 1946 making furniture and violins at Bridgend in South Wales, where many of the workers were disabled ex-miners.

Remploy is an early brand name originally registered by the Ex-Services Employment Welfare in the 1940s. It is derived from 're-employ' and was adopted in 1946 by Remploy, which until then had been called the Disabled Persons Employment Corporation.

Remploy went on to develop a factory network throughout the UK, operating in a diverse variety of business streams including the manufacture of school furniture, motor components and chemical, biological and nuclear protection suits for police and military in Britain and overseas.

Moving with the times, and responding to the decline in UK manufacturing, Remploy expanded into the service sector, creating businesses such as E-Cycle and Remploy Offiscope.

In 1988, Remploy recognised that it could help meet the changing needs of disabled people and people with a health condition and expanded its operations to help individuals find work with other companies.

As a provider of specialist employment services Remploy offers advice, pre-employment training, employment opportunities and support for disabled people and people with a health condition and advises employers on issues surrounding recruitment and retention in the workplace.

Remploy works closely with Jobcentre Plus, the Learning & Skills Council and many of the UK's top employers including Tesco, TK Maxx and BT to enable disabled people to obtain sustainable employment.

Last year, Remploy supported over 5,000 disabled jobseekers into sustainable employment. By 2012, we aim to increase the number of people we support to 20,000 each year - quadrupling the numbers today.

Remploy is already making significant moves to support this growth, through the opening of new city-centre branches and the launch of new services, such as Learning and Return to Work.

The Government is also undertaking an independent strategic review of Remploy to assess how a rebalancing of the company can better serve the changing requirements of disabled jobseekers.

Bob Warner, the group's Chief Executive, says:

"We share the Government's desire to encourage many more disabled people into work and therefore welcome an independent assessment of Remploy's contribution to this process.

"We know from our long experience of helping disabled people obtain work that there are large numbers who are able to work given the right support, training and encouragement.

"The key is to find the most effective means of delivering that support.

"We believe that the Government's strategic review of Remploy gives us the opportunity to show how we can dramatically increase the number of disabled people we can support into employment each year".