Worcester Presses, based in the Black Country, has seen turnover jump by £700,000 to £3.2m, off the back of strong demand from the automotive, aerospace and construction sectors.
In order to build on the recent expansion, the owner, Charles Higgins, has sold his majority stake in the business to current directors Russell Hartill, Tony Carter and Ivan Littlewood. The trio have already signalled their intentions by investing in a new CNC lathe and recruiting administrative and machining apprentices.
“Worcester Presses has over 69 years of history and a proud reputation for the quality of the machines we supply and the high levels of customer service we provide,” explained Russel Hartill, who has taken over as managing director.
“This is a fantastic business to develop and a lot of the track record and platform we have in place for future growth has come from the hard work, knowledge and contacts that Charles has brought to the business over the last forty years.”
He went on to add: “He’ll continue in a sales and consultancy role and we are looking forward to leveraging his expertise as we look to build on a 20% rise in sales in 2018.
“A lot of this growth has been down to our ability to deliver turnkey packages, with more customers looking for their hydraulic and mechanical presses to be tailored to their exact specification - often looking to integrate coil processing as part of the installation.”
Employing 14 people at its 12,000 sq ft factory in Dudley, the company has seen a 35% increase in sales for its range of hydraulic presses, offering both C Frame and straight side presses to customers involved in the metal forming and stamping industry.
The firm has also signed an agreement with a press transfer system specialist to shortly enable it to supply complete automation/robotic packages in the UK, providing clients with a way of streamlining labour-intensive manufacturing applications.
