Accelerate backing allows 125-year-old firm to celebrate

The new work – secured after backing by supply chain initiative Accelerate – follows the complete refurbishing of an existing workshop to establish a new bearing manufacturing centre. It has enabled the white-metal bearing and crankshaft specialist to expand its workforce to 35. This latest investment has been backed by a £20,000 capital grant from Accelerate and is the most important development to take place since the company moved to its present location in 1965. The funding boost has been channelled into a state-of-the-art Mazak Integrex 300 CNC machine, which is the largest machine of its kind the company has ever purchased. It is used to produce bearings for use in diesel engines, gearboxes, turbines, fans and pumps. * Accelerate, now in its 10th year, continues to provide the automotive sector with financial and strategic support. The initiative is managed by Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and funded by Advantage West Midlands and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). It has successfully bid for new European funding that will see an “exciting new project” added to the ongoing work of ‘NEAC’ (Network of European Automotive Competence) in the future. Pictured: Norman Taylor, Business Link Birmingham, left, with Andrew Reeves, JH Richards' managing director