Member Article

AWI breaks £10m sales barrier after trio of new contracts

Major new orders to supply into the aerospace, petrochemical and nuclear sectors have helped a UK manufacturer smash the £10m barrier for the first time in its 72-year history.

Alloy Wire International (AWI), which supplies more than 60 different ‘High Performance’ alloys, has seen sales increase by £3m since 2016 and puts the sustained expansion down to its ability to offer 3-week lead times and the growing demand for its Emergency Manufacturing Service.

The company has also invested heavily in its stock, with 200 tonnes now available at any one time – the largest holding it has ever held.

Mark Venables, Managing Director, commented: “The recovery in oil and gas has certainly been one of the highlights of recent months and interest for our material has come from every corner of the globe…I think at the last count we were exporting to 55 countries.

“In order to cope with the increase in volumes we have taken on three new people in sales and in the dry drawing department, whilst investment in bespoke machinery and an ever growing international list of sales offices gives us an ideal platform to grow sales even further at our sites in the West Midlands and in Yorkshire.”

He continued: “We have a fantastic team who all know our strategy and work very hard to continually maintain the high standards the AWI name has become synonymous with. Whilst wire may be our core offer, it’s our people that deliver the biggest competitive advantage.”

Alloy Wire International makes round, flat and shaped wire in a range of material that is growing by the month, with more than 60 currently available to choose from.

The firm stocks in excess of 200 tonnes of material, which allows it to offer unrivalled lead times of three weeks from the order being placed.

It has also recently invested in an additional 4,000 sq ft of production space and launched its own ‘Wire Finder App’ as part of a marketing drive to help customers find the right wire for their applications.

Mark concluded: “It frequently amazes the team how far our products go and we have found out in the last year that our wire is used in space programmes, in nuclear reactors and in some of the world’s fastest car engines. British manufacturing at its very best!”

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