01 December 2023
The first specialist machine in a GB£500,000 (€574,000) investment drive has been installed at Alloy Wire International (AWI), a leading manufacturer of round, flat and profile wire that supports more than 6,000 customers across 65 countries.
AWI’s new machine is a wet drawing machine that will allow the company to significantly increase capacity as it looks to take advantage of a rapidly growing order book. The AWI team has worked with the manufacturer to ensure this new machine will fit seamlessly into the production set-up at its state of the art factory, with its specific features helping to reduce lead times even further.
The capabilities offered by the new GB£145,000 machine include pre-programming to allow for set spool weights, or wire lengths, and flexibility to work with a wider range of both inlet and finish sizes; this in turn increases the range of mechanical properties that can be offered across all of its 62 grades.
Tom Mander, managing director of AWI, commented: “Our sales have risen by over GB£6 million in the last 18 months and our pipeline of orders is looking extremely healthy – the time was right to push the button on upgrading our manufacturing capabilities. The production team looked at what we required to give us more capacity and greater flexibility and a GB£500,000 investment package was signed off – starting with the recent install of the wet drawing machine.”
He added that the machine has been customised for AWI’s operations, enabling the company to consider work that it has previously turned down. “You can’t stand still in our sector. The wet drawing machine will be the first of a total GB£500,000 investment strategy, which will eventually see a four spindle annealing line spooler, a new multihead drawing machine, and two, single hole drawing machines, arrive by the end of the year.”
The company, which has two sites in the West Midlands and Yorkshire, was purchased by directors Tom Mander, Andrew Du Plessis, and Adam Shaw, in January. Since then they’ve overseen a significant growth in sales, with orders up nearly 40%, placing the company on course for a nearly GB£18 million turnover by the close of 2023 – the best 12 months in AWI’s 77 year history.
