Tube bender Unison follows record year with booming sales and build rates

Over 10 of the machines currently on order are also destined for export, with some going to manufacturers in the company's traditional international markets of the USA, Western Europe and Scandinavia - and the rest to manufacturers in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Last year was already a record year for Unison, with the company building the highest number of machines ever, increasing its headcount by almost 20%, and leasing 8000 ft2 of additional space next to its Scarborough factory - which has been converted into a second machine building and testing area. The latest order surge is prompting Unison to expand again, and the company is recruiting new staff, and looking to invest in a new factory during 2013. By the end of 2012, Unison expects its headcount to be some 20% higher than today. "The tube bending industry has made an irrevocable decision to switch to all-electric machines, and our track record in this technology sector - which is unequalled as we pioneered all-electric benders back in 1990s - has given us the richest tube bending capability on offer today," says Alan Pickering, CEO of Unison. "We are now building machines at a rate that is some three times higher than we were a year ago." Unison attributes its success to several factors. Chief among these is the company's focus on all-electric tube bending with digital, computer-controlled control of motion. These machines offer major productivity and accuracy advantages, compared with traditional hydraulically powered benders. Mr Pickering also attributes the surge in sales to the current pick-up of industrial activity in the North American market - where Unison has a well-established sales capability - and to the company's continued investment in R&D throughout the recent downturn. Over the last two years, Unison has taken several major steps forward in technology, including upgrading the electrical architecture of its tube bending machines to a sophisticated real-time Ethernet network, and integrating a major new tooling facility that allows machines to both bend and cut tubes in one continuous process. "Like a lot of machine manufacturers, we often develop new technology to satisfy customer requests, but, unusually, we also invest in pure R&D," adds Mr Pickering. "We have just committed to spending three quarters of a million pounds on one new generic project, for example. In all, we're investing some 10% of our turnover on R&D, which is probably two or three times what many of our competitors spend." One of Unison's recent generic R&D efforts - an iPhone app that enables users to quickly determine the tooling needed for a particular bending task - is already paying dividends, as over 3,000 users worldwide have downloaded it in less than nine months.