Jones & Shipman/Holroyd appointment reveals global push

Based in Leicester, his appointment into this new position comes as part of a continued restructuring following the merger of Jones & Shipman and Holroyd in December 2006 under the ownership of holding company Precision Technologies Group. Mr Duignan is a long-term employee of the company, having spent more than 20 years with Jones & Shipman, latterly as sales director. Early results are positive with a recently launched, revamped website generating interest and orders from the Chinese market where the company’s presence has been underdeveloped. Existing markets have also seen a sales uplift as the company has won a number of major orders across the world. In the Japanese gas turbine market it has sold a new, larger capacity “XL” version of the Edgetek superabrasive machining centre, including a tool-changer for CBN wheels, mills and drills which allows more operations to be done from a single loading. Other orders include large rotor milling machines for Japan and Germany, while sales of the Dominator creepfeed grinding machines and cylindrical grinding products have won orders to worldwide customers of £4.5 million in a single month. In Addition to the new XL - 5 axis Superabrasive grinder with tool changer, currently on test prior to its official market launch, the company is developing a new range of larger, multi-axis cylindrical grinding machines, which will act as the platform for a new thread grinding machine. Further R&D will aim to combine the strongest aspects of Holroyd’s ‘Edgetek’ and J&S’s lines and their machining technologies of Superabrasive, HEDG, creepfeed and milling to produce a new range of world-class grinding products.