Lean helps claw back work from China

Announcing its results for the year ended 31 March, the company said its development under a new executive team had continued with upgraded controls and improved analysis of product profitability bringing new rigour to the operating units. Management had been strengthened and the move to a more urgent and customer focused management culture was now largely complete. Chamberlin’s foundries had progressed well with overall demand being sustained and the price differential in favour of low cost economies reducing. This, coupled with issues relating to their quality and service had led to the return to the UK of some work previously sourced abroad. The engineering companies made a strong contribution to group results, generating 38% of trading profit from a base of 18% of group revenues. The turnaround process that Chamberlin initiated some 18 months ago had gone well with all subsidiaries making good progress, run either by managers appointed by the new executive team or by ones who had responded well to the changed business culture; they were providing strong leadership to their businesses and reducing the reliance on direction from the centre. At Chamberlin & Hill Castings, a high-volume foundry in Walsall, there had been strong demand from automotive customers, especially for turbocharger components and a strategy to develop a presence in the hydraulics market had seen initial orders from many of the dominant hydraulics OEMs. Excellent progress had been made with the implementation of lean techniques, driven by the positive engagement of the employees. Improvements in quality, productivity and workflow had been achieved, and Chamberlin said it looked forward to further gains in the coming year. The company’s two Russell Ductile foundries were winning profitable business in both UK and export markets and although demand for castings from the UK steel industry had declined sharply this had been offset by gains in the rail, construction equipment and heavy vehicle industries. Russell Ductile had recently won contracts to supply both UK and export customers with castings that were previously sourced from China. Turnover for the period was up at £40 million (£39.2m) while underlying pre-tax profit stood at £1.4million (£1.1m).