Mills CNC Technology Campus announced

Later this year, the company will double its floor space (through the acquisition of a 25,000 sq foot building adjacent to its existing facilities) and re-brand the entire site as The Mills Technology Campus, which will be home to all of Mills CNC's operations. The increased space will be used to boost the company's stock of Doosan machines held in the UK. It is estimated that over 60 machines will be held in stock at Leamington, once the Campus is up and running, and that these will comprise the most popular and fastest-selling machine tool models, as well as machines which, owing to their size, were not previously able to be stocked in the UK. Says managing director Nick Frampton: "The increase in floor space is good news for us and for our customers. In the past, a proportion of our stock machines arriving from the Doosan factory had to be warehoused at Felixstowe, because we hadn't got the space available in Leamington. "By doubling the space at Leamington, we will now be able to demonstrate and showcase a broader range of Doosan machines to our customers and, because we are carrying more stock per se, will be able to achieve even faster delivery and installation times." The Technology Campus will also enable Mills to develop its turnkey operations further, with the creation of a dedicated turnkey centre. Mr Frampton again: "A significant proportion of our sales are turnkey in nature. The new turnkey centre will help us grow this side of our business and we will be actively marketing our ability to design, manage and implement complex manufacturing and automation-led projects to customers in the future." The increase in space will also see the expansion of the CNC Training Academy, with four fully-equipped training rooms coming on stream and being made available to meet the training demands of Mills customers and of the machine tool sector at large. The Technology Campus, as the name suggests, is a place to meet and interact, where education and learning are high on the agenda, and where manufacturing problems and challenges are discussed, evaluated and solved. Concludes Mr Frampton: "This is a major investment for Mills, but to keep the company moving forward and improving is one that makes economic and commercial sense. "We know that the initiative has got the 'thumbs-up' from staff – indeed a catalyst behind the Campus creation came from the team here at Mills who, tasked with delivering excellent customer service, made it clear that our existing space constraints were impacting on their ability to do just that. "As a consequence, Mills staff have been actively involved in this next phase of Mills' development, and the £500,000 investment we are making in the creation of the Technology Campus not only recognises their involvement and addresses their needs, but also signifies something new and different in the machine tool sector that will further differentiate us from the competition and will delight and inspire our customers." With building works now underway it is expected that the first phase of the Technology Campus will be completed within the first quarter of 2014.