Mills CNC has reported its best first-half year sales performance in the company's 40-year history.
From January 2013 - June 2013, the exclusive distributor of Doosan machine tool in the UK and Ireland, saw sales exceed £26 million for the 6-month period and, with an already healthy looking forward order book for the remainder of the year currently standing at a little over £16 million, forecasts for 2013 as a whole are extremely positive.
Says managing director, Nick Frampton: "Following our sales successes last year, we started 2013 confidently - determined to emulate, if not surpass, our 2012 performance.
"The strong demand for Doosan machine tools amongst UK and Irish manufacturers has shown no sign of abating and the introduction of new Doosan machines, like our GT 2100/GT 2100M 8"chuck/65mm bar diameter box guide-way lathes, launched in December 2012, have made a strong contribution to our sales performance in a relatively short period of time."
Other Doosan machines that proved popular in the first half of the year were Mills' ranges of Puma and Lynx lathes, its 5-axis machining centres, its DNM and Mynx 3-axis vertical machining centres, and especially successful were its large horizontal borers and horizontal machining centres.
Adds Mr Frampton: "In addition to the continuing high demand for these machines, we have also experienced, and welcomed, an increase in our turnkey business, with many manufacturers selecting Mills as the company best positioned and best resourced to design, manage and implement their, often complex, manufacturing projects."
During the first half of 2013, Mills launched its new dedicated servicing division (Mills CNC Servicing) and, anticipating that the UK and Irish economies will continue to grow for the foreseeable future, book the largest stand at MACH 2014.
The company's CNC Training Academy also picked up the MTA Award for being the Industry's Best Training Scheme Provider in March 2013.
Mills CNC will launch its new range of Doosan sliding head sub-spindle lathes and a new range of Lynx lathes with Y-axes later on in the year (September 2014 and December 2014 respectively).
Both ranges will feature prominently on the company's stand at MACH, where Mills will be exhibiting 22 machines in total.
Finally, the company has announced a major new initiative taking place later this year that will see the doubling of its floor space (through the acquisition of a 25,000 sq foot building adjacent to its existing facilities), and the re-branding of its entire site, which will be called The Mills CNC Technology Campus.
Mills CNC Technology Campus will be home to all of Mills CNC's sales, service and customer support operation; its training and turnkey facilities. Thais, says Mr Frampton: "Will enable our team to provide and deliver an even better service to our customers."