Atkin enters 2009 on a high

Managing director Chris Ward said he was pleased with the company’s performance last year, but there would be no opportunity for his sales team to sit back on their laurels. “Over 27% of our sales were made overseas last year, primarily in mainland Europe,” he said. “The current sterling to euro exchange rate provides us with even greater opportunities for such export sales, and this will continue to be one of our areas of activity in the coming months.” A review of all its UK customers’ plans for 2009, had identified those that still have capital expenditure programmes, as distinct from those operating on repair and refurbishment budgets only. “It would appear that companies which primarily manufacture for the construction and automotive industries have virtually no capital expenditure plans for the foreseeable future,” Ward said. “However, there are definitely some industrial sectors which remain busy, and we shall focus on automation projects for customers in these industries. It is also important to remember that the value of the dollar and the euro strengthens the appeal of UK manufactured products in the home market.” The company was already seeing signs that its machine upgrade and refurbishment facility was set to become much busier over the next few months. Atkin Automation’s reputation has been built around its manufacture of the Atkin and BHP range of specialist high performance coil handling and processing (pictured) products and has for some years also supplied purpose designed and built automated production line equipment for a range of metal component manufacturers.