The KM Media Group has joined forces with Royal British Legion Industries (RBLI) as part of our Homes for Heroes campaign.

The charity has for the past 100 years dedicated itself to the needs of former military personnel and is two-thirds of the way through an ambitious project to expand its facilities – but needs another £100,000. With your help, we can find them that money.

Since soon after its inception in 1919, one of the key elements of the Royal British Legion Industries charity has been to offer gainful employment to ex-service personnel who find it hard to find a job on Civvy Street.

Tucked away on the RBLI estate off Hall Road in Aylesford is a factory that is home to a social enterprise business called Britain’s Bravest Manufacturing Company.

With a turnover of around £6m a year, the company somewhat surprisingly is responsible for manufacturing most of the signs found on our streets and railways.

Anything from a 30mph speed limit to a level crossing warning sign is been made here.

Factory boss David Church explained: "Network Rail and National Highways are our two biggest customers, but we also make signs for KCC and commercial companies. Increasingly we are also making things such as the Tommy silhouettes for sale through our own online store."

There are actually three factories: the main one at Aylesford, one at Leatherhead and another in Scotland.

The business employs around 70 people at Aylesford, 30 in Leatherhead and 25 north of the border.

Around 70% of the workforce are ex-service personnel who have some form of disability.

Some of the staff have been working there for 20-plus years.

A relative newcomer – he has been there 'only' 10 years – is Tirthraj Thapa, a former Rifleman with 1 Royal Gurkha Rifles.

He was on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan when he stepped on an Improvised Explosive Device which blew off his left leg below the knee.

After two years' rehabilitation at the Army's Headley Court centre, he left the forces and was given a job with the RBLI, first on the sawmill and now in the signage department.

Married with two children, he lives in Maidstone, and travels daily to Aylesford.

He said: "The Royal British Legion Industries is a very friendly place. They look after injured veterans and disabled people like myself. They are like a family to me and I'm very happy to work here."

The factory doesn't only employ disabled veterans, disabled civilians are taken on too.

There are three divisions to the business at Aylesford.

The signage division manufactures signs from sheets of double layered aluminium wrapped around a plastic interior. They are cut to size and shape, while meanwhile the graphic is printed either digitally or by silk screening printing on vinyl which is then stuck on, before the sign is packaged up for delivery either by FedEx or the firm's own transport.

A small but growing part is the manufacturing of signs using recycled plastics.

Mr Church said: "We find increasingly that our customers want to affirm their green credentials."

A second division makes timber products – pallets for the construction industry, and fruit bins for agriculture.

Mr Church, who is not a veteran himself, has been operations manager for 23 years.

He said: "The timber business is a big part of what we do. We make around 8,000 pallets a week and our delivery lorry goes put probably four times a day."

There is a lot of timber cut-offs left over, but they are not wasted.

They are chipped and then shipped to a power station at Sandwich where they are burnt to produce electricity.

The third element is the manufacture of items for sale through the Tommy Shop – RBLI's online store.

This begin with the Tommy silhouettes that have proved such poignant additions to Remembrance Day commemoration events, but manufacture has expanded to include a range of other Tommy products – from cuff-links to beanie hats.

The division also makes plaques for other national events – with celebrations for King Charles' Coronation expected to be a huge seller.

All the profits are poured back into the RBLI's services.

Mr Church said: "We're not focussed on profit. The aim is to provide useful employment for our beneficiaries."

The factory has recently secured a new order from Network Rail to make track-side identification plates, to tell the railways' workmen which way the trains are running.

The sizeable order has enabled the company to invest £30,000 in new machinery.

Dillon Murray is the head of retail in charge of the Tommy Shop.

He said: "We only started the shop towards the end of 2019, but it's really taken off

"Now we have 40 to 50 Tommy products and a £1m turnover."

But it's not all about the Tommy products, the shop also did a fantastic sale in products to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

Orders in the retail division are prepared for despatch by members of the fulfilment section.

These are six members of the community who all have some special need that would make it difficult for them to find a job elsewhere.

One is blind, another can't read or write. Their supervisor is Jo Baldry.

She said: "They don't have any family to turn to, so I also help them with things like making a doctor's appointment, or even in one case recently renewing their Sky TV package.

"We are their family. We generally find that once here, they never want to go anywhere else."

The six staff work just four mornings a week, so as not to interfere with their benefits. They are not veterans but live in the local area of Maidstone and Medway.

Ms Baldry always tries to go that extra mile, by for example, giving her crew an Easter egg.

She said: "Their faces lit up! They have no-one else to give them an egg."

Britain’s Bravest Manufacturing Company is just one part on a holistic package of support provided by the RBLI at its Aylesford site.

Its Centenary Village project which began in 2017 has already delivered £24m worth of facilities including assisted living accommodation blocks for former servicemen, disability adapted accommodation, a dementia care facility and a care home, as well as emergency accommodation for the homeless. It already houses 350 veterans and their families.

But of course there is more to do. The charity has seen a 45% increase in demand from the homeless applying for its assistance in the past year alone.

Planning permission is on place to provide new female-only homes, and a community centre with accessible gym and an IT suite. All that is lacking is the cash.

The charity urgently needs to raise £100,000 before the next spade can go in the ground.

To donate to Homes for Heroes, visit this website.

Alternatively, donate by text message - text 5RBLI to 70085 to donate £5; text 10RBLI to 70085 to donate £10, or text 20RBLI to 70085 to donate £20.

Texts will cost the donation amount plus one standard network rate message, and you’ll be opting into hearing more from the RBLI.

If you would like to donate, but not be contacted further, please add NOINFO to your text message.