Government officials paid a visit to lightweight casting company Sarginsons Industries to broaden their knowledge of the sector.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) visited Sarginsons’ foundry on Torrington Avenue, Coventry for a tour of the firm’s shop floor and operations.
The visit was organised by the Cast Metals Federation (CMF) and supported by the CWLEP Growth Hub.
Sarginsons is on track to grow sales by 30% to £7.5m by the end of 2017, following a £130,000 investment in energy efficient equipment, including two new gas furnaces, a new air compressor and new LED lighting across its facility.
Anthony Evans, managing director at Sarginsons, said: “We were honoured to have taken a visit from the BEIS just before they announced their industrial strategy, which I am delighted to hear focuses on investment into research and development, and the next generation of workers.
“These were two key areas we highlighted during the visit as being really important to Sarginsons over the coming years.
“The wider British manufacturing industry, including Sarginsons, needs to be better prepared for an increase in demand, in terms of more investment in developing workforce skill sets and innovative processes, which was acknowledged by our visitors.
“For example, Sarginsons has seen extreme growth in orders from North America for aluminium car parts both as the material becomes more popular overseas and because of the weakness of the pound.
“Although these overseas orders are niche, all of the signs show that this is going to grow moving forward and we need to be able to capitalise on this.
Richard Heath, who attended on behalf of CMF, said: “It’s vital the government is aware of the pressing issues that our industry needs help with to be able to compete with other nations, so we were delighted to be able to take them on a tour to meet some of the country’s major manufacturers.”