Manufacturer of high performance electrohydraulic controls, HydraForce has seen sales increase by more than a third thanks in part to a significant increase in demand from Asia.
HydraForce is predicting that turnover will exceed £70 this year at its Aston factory, up by around 35% on last year. Export now represents more than 80% of its Birmingham output.
The award-winning manufacturer, which employs almost 500 people and moved into a brand new purpose-built factory in 2015, has increased the number of products it manufactures and sells across Europe, China and India.
The company designs and manufactures high performance hydraulic valves, manifolds and electro-hydraulic controls for a variety of off-highway industries including farming, construction, marine, material handling, mining and forestry.
The new orders are for onward sale to its Asian distributor network, for the construction industry, and the increase in production has meant a boost to employee numbers too.
The company plans to retain a new night shift introduced earlier this year to meet customer demand, and is currently recruiting across all of its shifts, with plans to continue doing so over the coming months. In addition, the company is recruiting across its engineering, finance, purchasing and customer service teams.
Managing director at HydraForce, Tony Brown commented: “We’ve asked for, and received, commitment from every member of staff to help meet demand for our products.”
He added: “Our new Birmingham facility has helped us improve our speed to market throughout Europe, into Turkey, China and India. This is a really good news story for British, and Birmingham, manufacturing.”
HydraForce, which celebrated 29 years in Birmingham this year, was the first manufacturer to commit to the Advanced Manufacturing Hub, one of six economic zones identified by the City Council to drive Birmingham’s future growth ambitions.
The UK’s biggest digital manufacturing show!
Liverpool and the North West’s advanced manufacturing is in the spotlight as the region plays host to 4,000 manufacturers from across the country at The Manufacturer Smart Factory Expo.
The UK’s largest standalone Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) expo coincides with the government’s much anticipated Industrial Strategy, and features:
- Dedicated Exhibition Zones – Industrial Automation, Digital Transformation, Smart Factories, Industrial Internet
- Free conference content – Close to 100 presentations from world-class manufacturers and technology experts over two days
- Innovation Alley – lifting the lid on the UK’s manufacturing tech start-up scene
- Hack & Pitch – real engineers, tackling real problems, in real time!
