Andy Boffin joins SGS Carbide Tool (UK) as sales area manager

A time-served toolmaking apprentice with a precision engineer component supplier to Rolls-Royce, he continued with his education to complete his HND, and gained valuable manufacturing experience in all disciplines. He spent 12 years in industry before joining the world's largest carbide manufacturer, Sandvik Coromant, as a sales engineer covering the Midlands region. In 2007, he moved into product management, a non-sales technical support role responsible for grooving and threading products, as well as small parts machining. Involving global travel, the role was to support the parent business in Sweden. After four years, he moved into business development, focused on advanced machining, a technical role involving projects for customers, which could be feature- or product-based, and involved developing machining solutions. Boffin says: "Although this is only my third job, as I don't tend to move around much, I have gained a wide and varied engineering experience. Machining strategies and methods applied correctly get the best from the manufacturing process. And customers like to deal with engineers, it is a philosophy that SGS is keen to adhere to and one I subscribe to wholeheartedly." And he says of SGS Carbide's offerings: "The tools are targeted and the application is critical to unlocking the benefits of the cutting tool technology. I am keen for customers to learn, so their business can improve. I am happiest being with the customers, highlighting the 'value at the spindle' that can be unleashed from SGS solid carbide tools and the correct application support." Having played semi-professional football for over a decade and competitive by nature, he says: It is drilled into you to win. This is reflected on the shopfloor, where the cutting tools' performance capability provides the opportunity to win. Here, the customer has to trust your knowledge and your product, before you get any business." Boffin concludes: "At SGS, there is a family feel, everyone is extremely professional and also very helpful to each other. It is not something you get within every company, where the shareholders drive all aspects of the business."