Record sales for XYZ Machine Tools; European expansion a target

The company notched up over £25 million in its last financial year, helped by the introduction of new machine models, the continued improvement in the UK's manufacturing economy, and an increase in exports to mainland Europe. Says XYZ Machine Tool's managing director, Nigel Atherton: "These record sales figures come on the back of three years of solid growth for us and we are encouraged by the signs that the UK economy is continuing to grow and manufacturing is playing an important role in that. "Customers are recognising the need to invest in new machine tools in order to strengthen their competitive edge through increased machine efficiency. Our advantages at XYZ are our diverse range of machines from ProtoTRAK controlled mills and lathes, through to multi-axis CNC machines, along with the fact that many of these machines are held in stock at our headquarters in Devon. These, and our loyal customer base, put XYZ Machine Tools in a very strong position to continue this trend of year-on-year growth." European sales represented about 12% of last year's turnover and this is an area that the company recognises as a major source for sales growth in the coming years. Export sales manager Andrew Kilshaw is developing the company's existing network of 16 distributors and aims to have a Tier One distributor in every country in Europe before the end of 2014. These Tier One distributors will have a dedicated showroom and a product manager/sales manager focusing on the sales of XYZ machines.