Indian joint venture for Asquith Butler
1 min read
A joint-manufacturing agreement has been signed by Asquith Butler (Brighouse, West Yorkshire) with Pune-based Sharpline Machinery (Private) Limited (SMPL).
The agreement gives Sharpline sole rights for the Asquith Butler sales, marketing and servicing of new and used machines throughout India and the Middle East. SMPL will also manufacture the Powercentre horizontal machining centre and the Starcentre vertical machining centre on behalf of Asquith Butler, although heads and rams for the machines will continue to be manufactured in Asquith Butler’s UK factory.
Bought in 2003 by Kingsbury Jig & Tool Group Ltd and Paul Hinchliffe, who had previously been senior designer at Asquith Butler, Asquith Butler now designs and manufactures a small number of large capacity machining centres tailored to suit customer requirements. In just three years, turnover has grown 400 per cent and the company has already built and supplied new machines in addition to completing a number of impressive refurbishment projects for prominent blue-chip customers in the construction, marine operations, aerospace and automotive industries.
However, without a realistic and commercially cost-effective build cost, there was a danger that some of the standard machine designs would simply not be viable to manufacture and have to be shelved. The joint venture offers a solutions.
SMPL is experienced in the high quality refurbishment and retrofitting of used machinery, including ours, and is the official training company for Siemens control systems in India.
