Sheffield magnet maker pulls in capital investment

Posted on 26 Aug 2014 by The Manufacturer

A Sheffield manufacturer of magnets has ploughed more than £250,000 of capital investment into the business after seeing record turnover in the first six months of 2014.

Anchor Magnets, the UK’s only producer of flexible extruded magnets, put the finance into expanding its machining capacity and setting up a new integrated management system for clients.

The company, which operates as specialist suppler to sectors including retail, automotive and engineering industries, saw turnover reach £3.1m from January to June.

This led to the company tripling its conversion and cutting capacity for sheet magnetic material, and now plans are afoot to expand machining capabilities for its extrusion plant.

Warren Turner, managing director at Anchor Magnets, said utilising capital investment was a necessity given the company’s growth, which includes exporting to 26 countries worldwide.

“We have seen healthy growth across the business and this has created a need for targeted capital investment,” he said.

“Crucially, we needed to be better placed to react to customer needs and increased demands and to create greater capacity so that we can plan for, and manage, further growth.

Having provided products for automotive giants such as Bentley, Audi and Aston Martin, the company is now predicted to surpass its annual turnover record by exceeding £6m for this year.

Mr Turner added: “Since Anchor Magnets was formed, back in 1984, we have consistently grown and adapted to meet a highly diverse range of customer requirements and this pace of change has forced the need to streamline our entire sales, manufacturing, purchasing and finance systems through an integrated ERP system, which was a £150,000 investment on its own.

“And the investment will continue with approximately £25,000 earmarked for new machinery in our extrusion department and we are currently looking at ways to reconfigure some of our manufacturing facilities and to free up much needed inventory space.”