WNT and XYZ get together

Tooling distributor WNT (UK) has had a UK presence for 12 years, building its UK market share from nothing to, this year, some 7.5% of the £200 million cutting tools market (source: Manufacturing Technologies Association), making it one of the top five suppliers of metalcutting tools in the UK, it is claimed. The company only sells direct, so has a very firm link to its customers, but, as managing director Tony Pennington readily admits, up until now there hasn't really been a pressing reason for customers to visit the company's Sheffield HQ. Now there is. And that reason is that these customers can now see cutting tools in action, because the company has teamed up with XYZ Machine Tools to kit out a demonstration area with, at the moment, five machine tools (see box item, below), although these will be 'rotated' at regular intervals. Image: The new showroom will give WNT a reason to invite customers to Sheffield, for the first time With WNT already on its way to its best year ever, with a turnover of £18 million in sight – topping its best ever result of £13 million – Mr Pennington says he believes the new showroom will bring further business success to the company. But the new capability will serve to support more than just customer demonstrations, he explains. "Throughout Europe, there are hundreds of WNT technical sales engineers who need constant updating of their knowledge. We take all our technical sales engineers to Reutte, Austria, each year (see box item, next page ), but with this facility we'll be able to keep our people up to date on a more frequent basis and on machinery that is more in keeping with our UK customer base, too. In addition, we'll host our colleagues from Europe, with WNT personnel from Poland and Turkey visiting in November, for example. "Customer trials, WNT Open Days and XYZ Machine Tools Open Days, as well as XYZ customer training for those local to Sheffield, will all also be supported. All together, the new facility represents an investment of around £150,000, excluding machine tools." By the early September event for the press, the company had already held its first customer demonstration, with the official first Open House held on 14/15 September and at which all visitors received a £50 WNT tooling voucher, while the first 10 to buy an SCR Monster Mill kit took away a SatNav. On the day, close to 100 visitors turned up and orders for 15 machines taken. Explaining the rationale for the partnership from his side, XYZ Machine Tools' managing director, Nigel Atherton, highlighted that his company already has four demonstration showrooms dotted around the country – at the company's Devon HQ (Burlescombe); Waltham Abbey, Herts; Nuneaton, Warks; and Blackburn, Lancs – but that the Sheffield area represented an ideal further location. Such showrooms have been "really, really successful", he adds, because people are reluctant to travel too far – "they don't want to travel more than hour" – and also because live demonstrations bring technology to life in a way static demonstrations clearly never can, with people far more likely to buy once they have actually seen a machine/tool cutting metal. He further highlights that the four machines here allow the company to support all its customer training needs. "With this facility, we have a ProtoTRAK control on a mill and one on a lathe, plus a Siemens unit on a lathe and machining centre. We like to train customers offsite, because this avoids interruptions, giving them a better training experience. Indeed, we find that customer trained offsite use our help line less." This Sheffield move is not the first time that WNT and XYZ Machine Tools have worked together, however, as the pair explain – WNT tooling is used in support of XYZ machining demonstrations at XYZ's other showrooms, while the pair cross refer visitors to each other's stands at exhibitions such as MACH. In addition, for the first time next year, WNT will be at Southern Manufacturing, partnering with XYZ Machine Tools, which has had a presence at the event for some time. With the new joint facility, it is clear that both companies expect to boost their performance further by meeting their customers' needs even better. Box item 1 The machine tool line-up [] XYZ 710 vertical machining centre – 20 hp/8,000 rpm spindle; 760 by 430 mm table; 710 by 450 by 500 mm travel; 4,000 kg weight machine; Siemens 828D with ShopMill software for easy programming [] Compact Turn 52 – 52 mm bar capacity; 61 mm spindle bore; 20 hp/5,000 rpm spindle; 1,700 by 1,450 mm footprint; Siemens 828D with ShopTurn software [] XYZ SMX3500 3-axis bed mill – 5 hp/5,000 rpm spindle; 1,370 by 356 mm table; 770 by 500 by 540 mm travel; ProtoTRAK CNC [] Proturn SLX425 gap bed lathe – 10 hp/2,500 rpm (three ranges); 480 mm swing over bed; 1.25 and 2 m centre distance; 80 mm spindle bore; ProtoTRAK SLX control [] SMX 2000 turret mill, 2 or 3-axis – 3 hp/5,000 rpm spindle; 1,270 by 254 mm table; 750 by 380 mm travel (XYZ Machine Tools, call 01823 674200) Box item 2 The essence of WNT WNT (0800 073 2073), headquartered in Germany, is majority owned by cutting tool manufacturer Ceratizit SA, headquartered in Luxembourg (the result of a merger, in 2002, between Luxembourg-based Cerametal and Austria-based Plansee Tizit), which itself is 50% owned by privately owned and Austria-headquartered powder metals producer Plansee, located in Reutte. WNT's Sheffield location is now also home to Ceratizit in the UK, in fact. See Machinery website articles here and here Ceratizit is focused on large OEMs and specific industries, while WNT's focus is SMEs that other tooling companies typically serve via distribution. WNT has some 4,500 active customers and says that it adds to this weekly. The company's key to success is the supply of reliable, high performance product, backed by customer service, the latter meaning – fast response to customer telephone enquiries (in the office, a visible display board keeps track of response times and lost calls, for example); technical assistance at the end of a phone line, from in-house specialists; direct technical support to customers via the company's 21 external technical sales engineers; and next-day delivery for products ordered up until 6:30 pm, with no minimum order value. In addition, tool vending cabinets are offered free to customers spending at least £1,000/month. Incidentally, orders may be placed online, too: https://www.toolingcenter.com. WNT's catalogue contains 45,000 items and 24-hour delivery of these is possible in 99% of cases. The company's products are manufactured by Ceratizit and other companies, but, importantly, the source of supply remains consistent throughout a product's life. A large project underway at the moment is the move to make 3D cutting tool models to DIN 4003 available online, while iPad/iPhone apps are coming in support of online ordering in the future – no time frame is put on this particular development. First published in Machinery, October 2011