Member Article

Worcester presses the button on record year

A Stourbridge manufacturing specialist is celebrating the best twelve months in its 67-year history after turnover doubled to £2.8m.

Worcester Presses, which provides a range of mechanical and hydraulic presses and coil processing equipment from its Titan Works factory, sold more than 50 machines last year following strong growth in the UK’s automotive, aerospace and construction sectors.

It even completed its first export order to the US in 2015, with a reconditioned high-speed press prepared and sent to a customer in Detroit for use in producing riveted aluminium parts.

Bosses at the firm have taken on five new staff to cope with the demand for its services and are looking for even further growth when it exhibits at MACH 2016 in April.

“We’ve never seen demand reach this level before, especially in such a short space of time. If you think we’ve more than doubled turnover, you begin to understand the scale of what we’ve achieved.” explained Russell Hartill, Sales Director at Worcester Presses.

“There has been specific interest in our Chin Fong range of presses, with 27 sold since last January – most from stock due to faster deliveries. Demand has been for the hugely popular GTX range (offering variations from 160 to 500 tonnes) including four state-of-the-art models for nearby automotive suppliers.”

He continued: “Sales of our hydraulic presses are also up 40% and investment in Tomac coil handling equipment has paid dividends with nine lines purchased as part of bespoke configurations.”

Worcester Presses, which now employs 13 people, has beaten off international competition thanks to its ability to customise the machines to suit bespoke configurations.

These are completed by experienced specialists at its 15,000 sq ft workshop in Stourbridge and include new guards, coil handling systems and press monitoring – all designed to optimise performance or accommodate more complex tooling.

On the back of increased sales, there has also been expansion in the firm’s servicing department, with the recruitment of a new manager, engineer and fitter.

“A strong range of high quality presses (both mechanical and hydraulic), excellent servicing team and an ability to source, prepare and install machines either from stock in the UK or within a six month timeframe have all contributed to our success,” continued Charles Higgins, Director.

“There have been many highlights in 2015, but my personal favourites were the sale of a 600-tonne Yeh Chiun hydraulic press to a leading UK car maker and a heavy-duty straight-sided 500 tonne Chin Fong press to a major automotive supplier.”

Established in 1949, Worcester Presses will be on Stand 4564 at MACH 2016, as part of The Metalforming Machinery Makers Association’s Metalworking Village.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Russ Cockburn .