Birmingham-based precision pressings and stamping specialist Brandauer announced a number of new contracts worth £3.5m as it celebrates its 150th anniversary.
The family-owned company, which employs 50 people, will begin production on a range of new complex components destined for the automotive, security detection and renewables markets this year.
It exports billions of parts every year, to countries ranging from China to the United States.
Rowan Crozier, sales and marketing director, said: “The new contracts are a perfect start to the celebrations for our 150th anniversary and illustrate how we are using the same skills of quality and innovation that were fundamental in founding the business, to secure the firm’s future.”
Brandauer, which produces in excess of four million parts every week for customers in the automotive, aerospace, electronics, medical and alternative energy sectors, is investing close to £1m on new equipment, including two high-speed Bruderer presses. The machines will produce up to two billion parts a year.
David Spears, managing director, commented: “Very few family-owned manufacturing businesses reach their sixth generation and we owe it all to the skill and dedication of our workforce.”
Having started his own career as a Brandauer apprentice, he continued: “Apprenticeships have played a vital part in the company’s history, from the very beginnings of the business to the present day.”
Chairman John Berkeley OBE said the company will use the anniversary to promote engineering careers in schools and further afield, attracting new young talent being “one of the key themes for 2012”.
One of the Brandauer’s highest profile projects was the design and production of pumping slot shield strips used throughout the 27km length of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Following this initial successful collaboration, the scientists at CERN asked Brandauer to use its technical expertise to develop vital pressure relief springs, 2,800 of which will soon be fitted to the LHC, the world’s largest machine.
