Member Article

AWI kicks off 2019 with ‘best ever’ £1m+ month

A leading UK manufacturing specialist is casting aside the uncertainty of Brexit by recording its best ever month in its 73-year history.

Alloy Wire International (AWI), which supplies more than 60 different ‘High Performance’ nickel alloys, has secured over £1.2m of sales in January, shipping 339 individual orders to customers in 27 different countries.

Boosted by a new quoting system, the company has seen demand for its wire emanate from clients in the automotive, aerospace, oil and gas and nuclear sectors, with many citing AWI’s 3-week lead time commitment as being crucial to their manufacturing operations.

Despite all of the negativity of Brexit negotiations, a significant proportion of new work has come from within the EU.

Mark Venables, Managing Director, commented: “2018 was our best ever year, with about £11m of orders secured and delivered. We thought this was good, but 2019 has got off to a flying start, culminating in our first ever month where we have enjoyed sales of £1m+.

“We’ve just continued doing what we do best, providing over 60 ‘High Performance’ alloys in just three weeks…with repeated reliability.”

He continued: “This is our business philosophy - a strategy focused on the combination of a significant stockholding, a multi-skilled team and major investment in supporting our sales teams that are located in more than 50 countries.

“Our suppliers and customers have talked to us about Brexit. We’ve been very open and proactive in these discussions and this seems to be working.”

Alloy Wire International makes round, flat and profile wire in a range of material that is growing by the month, with more than 60 currently available to choose from, each offering superior corrosion resistance and/or excellent performance at high temperatures.

In order to build on the year-on-year growth, the company has also signed off a £250,000 investment that will see the arrival of three new machines to boost speed, repeatable quality and capacity.

Angus Hogarth, Sales Director, concluded: “There’s no point basking in what we achieved in 2018, we need to focus on where the market is going and make sure we are at the forefront of any changes.

“The spend for this year will go towards automating part of the process and bringing in new technology that will help us continue the production of high quality wire - in varying sizes and volumes – even quicker.

“Finally, there is also the small matter of going for three major quality re-accreditations that will ensure we continue to offer world class manufacturing performance across all of the industries we serve.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Russ Cockburn .