Arrowsmith Engineering (Coventry), which is part of the rapidly growing ASG Group, has sealed long-term agreements with ITP Spain, Incora and Rolls-Royce in the UK and Germany, delivering the largest order book in its 57-year history.
It marks what has been a strong export period for the business, with overseas sales rocketing by nearly 400% following the pandemic and accounting for 35% of the firm’s annual £8.3m turnover.
Precision components manufactured at its Bayton Road factory in Coventry are sent to global customers in Brazil, China, France, Germany, Singapore, and Spain for end use in aerospace engines, landing gears and air frames.
Jason Aldridge, managing director of Arrowsmith Engineering, said: “It has been some week…from securing the International Trade title in the King’s Award for Enterprise on Monday to announcing our largest orderbook, underpinned by these landmark long-term agreements with some of the biggest names in aerospace.
“Civil aviation - a major market for us - literally dropped off the cliff (40% reduction) with the pandemic and we had to show good old-fashioned resilience and a fair bit of business innovation to get through it.”
He continued: “But now we are back and targeting our best-ever year of over £11m sales. We have also successfully moved with changes in the sector when it comes to the location of customer production facilities.
“Thanks to our technical expertise, our ability to add value in design and the financial strength of the ASG Group, we have been able to secure contracts in new countries, as well as securing these long-term agreements with ITP, Incora and Rolls-Royce. This gives us fantastic visibility of future orders.”
Arrowsmith Engineering, which has been reaccredited for the Silver SC21 supply chain award for quality and delivery performance, has just taken delivery of two further dual spindle Lynx 21000ISLYA/B CNC Mills machines.
This £300k investment follows the success of the recently installed 3 Lynx machines and the 5-axis DVF5000 and 4-axis DNM4500 cobot systems.
A strong commitment to new technology and robotics, coupled with the creation of ten new jobs, has given Arrowsmith the capacity and capability to win work against rivals ten times its size.
Plans are now in place to take annual sales past £25m over the next two years and this should result in the creation of a further 15 positions, with the focus on getting more women into engineering.
Jason went on to add: “The King’s Award is fantastic news for our business and is testimony to how our staff have gone above and beyond to help us overcome the troubles of the pandemic and emerge even stronger.
“It will help us with recruitment, especially when you consider we are competing with some major carmakers and aerospace primes locally.
“The process is one of the most stringent in business and I’m delighted for our wonderful staff. Yes, we have invested heavily in the best technology, but our people are still our greatest asset and selling point. This Award is for them.”
Simon Weston, managing director of ASG Group, concluded: “As an ambitious aerospace component manufacturer with a global footprint, ASG Group strives to be synonymous with quality in safety critical markets.
“Serving world class customers requires continued investment in the group’s long bed and short bed CNC machining capability; but this needs to be matched with hard work and determination throughout the business.
“ASG Arrowsmith was one of our first acquisitions and continue to be a very important strategic member of our group.
“The company operates to the highest world class manufacturing standards, and this is reinforced not only by the King’s Award, but the long-term customer agreements it has secured in the last week. It really is a British manufacturing success story.”
