New managing director for 600 Centre

He is charged with overseeing the full integration of the 600 Group UK sales operation that has been expanded to include sales, service and customer support of the newly branded and merged product lines of Colchester-Harrison multi-axis turning centres, lathes and vertical machining centres. Mr Grocock joined the 600 Centre operation at Shepshed, Loughborough, in 1994 as product manager grinding machines before being promoted to sales director. In this role, he championed the move of the business into being a strong turnkey application engineering specialist capable of adding value to stand-alone machine tools from leading international suppliers. This led to projects being won for cells and systems worth up to £4.5 million and a high level of repeat business that resulted in his elevation to general manager in 2005. Over the last 12 months he has integrated the Toyoda Mitsui Seiki range of cells and systems into the 600 Centre operation and been an important link in the winning of several major turnkey projects in the aerospace and off-road sectors. He was also instrumental with Andrew Dick in negotiating the Fuji agency of high production turning machines. Within the 600 Centre strategy will be expansion of the three technical centres at Shepshed, Heckmondwike in West Yorkshire and with RK International based in Erith, Kent. The 600 Centre is now the UK hub for the 600 Group’s turning and milling machine tools that will be marketed alongside leading international machine tool names such as Fanuc, Fuji, Toyoda Mitsui Seiki, Okamoto and Joemars.