Colchester and Harrison form new brand of brothers for 600 Group
1 min read
As part of a major new business strategy to deliver double digit sales growth this financial year, the 600 Group has brought together two of its best known Marques under a single brand – Colchester and Harrison CNC machines have become Colchester-Harrison.
The new brand also takes in Richmond vertical machining centres and will be sold through the existing Technical Centres located at RK International, Erith, Kent; 600 Centre, Shepshed, Leics; and at 600 Lathes, Heckmondwike. The 600 Lathes sales activity now comes under direct 600 Centre management, however.
Manual Colchester and Harrison machines are not part of the rebranding, retaining their separate Marques but continue to be available through the same channels as Colchester-Harrison in the UK. They will not be actively marketed, as has been the case for some time.
600 Centre will continue to offer value-added solutions based on high technology factored product, a service being branded 600 Solutions for internal consumption.
A new-to-the-UK brand, Clausing, is being established, with Clausing Europe being set up at 600 Group company Gamet Bearings, Colchester. The new company will set up a distribution network. Machines available from this source will include manual and simple CNC machines, but are described as ‘value’ machines versus the Colchester-Harrison medium technology and 600 Centre high technology machinery.
The first Clausing brand machines – manual lathes - were launched at MACH earlier this year. Mills, drills and saws will follow. Clausing machines will be sourced from the Group’s Chinese partner Dalian Machine Tool Group Corporation.
These three branded activities form one of three new divisions – 600 Machine Tools Division. The remaining two are 600 Electrox Laser Division and 600 Technologies Division (Gamet Bearings, Pratt Burnerd, Crawford Collets). 600 Group chief executive Andrew Dick believes that Electrox has the potential to become a much larger part of the Group’s business.
The new strategy covers the Group’s global activities and will see a strengthening of its activities in the mature Western economies and in the growing central and eastern European economies. “That’s where we are already implanted and where we feel we can make the biggest impact,” said Mr Dick.
