A Worcestershire presswork manufacturer has invested £1.9m to expand its business, which includes moving to a new facility and investing in equipment and staff.
A. E. Oscroft & Sons (AEO), a family-run business based in Redditch, has moved from its existing premises to a new 53,000 sqft facility site within the town comprising as a result of new investment.
The Company has invested in sustainable and energy saving equipment, a new quality centre, tool room facility while adding additional to its workforce.
The new staff include tooling engineers, toolmakers, shop floor staff and senior management additions, while AEO also revealed plans to introduce a new apprenticeship programme this year, which aims to recruit three full-time trainee tool makers.
Director Chris Oscroft said the investment was necessary to maintain the firm’s competitive edge, with the investment now meaning AEO can offer increased capacities and quicker turnaround times to customers.
“The new site, increased space and improved work flow system were necessary to keep ahead of the pace of the growing needs of our customers and the emergence of additional requirements for manufacturing capacity with the UK marketplace,” he said.
Mr Oscroft added AEO are currently consulting with existing and potential customers as to their requirements for the next five years.
In addition, the firm has installed solar panels on the roof of its new plant with extra space to increase yield and fitted a dual state of the art biomass heating system and introduced low-energy lighting within the facility thereby reducing its carbon footprint and minimising the impact and dependence on fossil fuels.
Fellow AEO director Tim Oscroft, said the company now aims to run the business as sustainably as possible while continuing efforts to be cost competitive.
We are monitoring all power consumptions on the new site and are making on-going efforts to continue to be cost competitive,” he said.
“Plus, we try to put an emphasis on UK manufacturing by producing as much as possible in-house and outsourcing all other processes to British subcontractors. This approach is also reflected in our plans to acquire businesses outside Britain and bring their production back to the UK.”
