Sunderland engineering firm expands with investment in new machinery

A Sunderland engineering firm has expanded its presence in the city after investing in new premises and machinery during the pandemic.

Turnmill Engineering, which is based at Washington Business Centre, is aiming to increase output by 50 per cent over the coming months as it looks to ramp up production.

The expansion, which has seen the firm increase its footprint three-fold, coincides with an investment in new machinery, including three Mazak CNC lathes machines.

Specialising in the production of consumables, jigs and fixtures and machine components, the company is on track to smash its previous sales records, which it says has been boosted by an uplift in orders during the pandemic.

Andrew Howe, co-founder and operations director, said: “We try to concentrate on jigs, fixtures and production line improvements but if you were to take one look at our order book then you’d soon see just how much of a wide range of projects we work across.

“We started out in 2018 by completing a handful of projects for clients primarily in the automotive sector however since then – literally by word of mouth – we have diversified and established ourselves in several key sectors including pharmaceuticals, motorsport and construction.

“We welcomed on board a number of new customers during the pandemic and this was mainly due to our production breakdown and line improvement service.

“With manufacturers the world over forced to adhere to strict social distancing measures, companies began exploring new ways to reduce production costs and we have been fortunate in the fact that we’ve been able to help through the provision of new fixtures, jigs and product development and hopefully we can continue building on that momentum post-covid.”