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News Release from: AsquithButler
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 01 January 2008
UK/India deal made in heavy duty machine
tools
UK machine tool builder is to have most components mad in India, except for the 'core' assemblies such as heads and rams for its heavy duty moving column machining centres.
Asquith Butler (Brighouse, West Yorkshire) and Sharpline Machinery (Private - SMPL, Pune, India) have signed a Joint-Manufacturing agreement The agreement gives SMPL sole rights for the Asquith Butler sales, marketing and servicing of new and used machines throughout India and the Middle East
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 1 May 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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SMPL will also manufacture the Powercentre horizontal machining centre and the Starcentre vertical machining centre on behalf of Asquith Butler, although Asquith Butler's UK factory will continue to make the heads and rams for the machines.
SMPL's company, Sharpline Automation (Private) (SAPL), will carry out manufacturing in India.
Managing director of Asquith Butler, Paul Hinchliffe, said: "India has some very good engineers, there is no language barrier, the cultures are complementary, with commercial systems similar to ours, and it is easy to get to.
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India also has a very good manufacturing base and supply of raw materials.
We selected SAPL because we could work with it comfortably.
The company is experienced in the high quality refurbishment and retrofitting of used machinery, including ours, and is the official training company for Siemens control systems in India.
Just as important, its values, goals and expectations are similar to ours.
It was also looking to expand into the manufacture of new machining centres itself, so this was a perfect opportunity to combine the future plans of both companies".
Bought in 2003 by Kingsbury Jig and Tool Group and Paul Hinchliffe, who had previously been senior designer at Asquith Butler, Asquith Butler now designs and manufactures a small number of customised, large capacity machining centres .
In just three years, turnover has grown 400% and the company has already built and supplied new machines in addition to completing a number of impressive refurbishment projects for prominent customers in the construction, marine operations, aerospace and automotive industries.
However, without a realistic and commercially cost-effective build cost, there was a danger that some of the highly developed, technically advanced standard machine designs would simply not be viable to manufacture and have to be 'shelved.' Seeking more economic ways to manufacture standard machines in order to compete effectively with other European manufacturers, Asquith Butler has found an ideal partner in the Indian machine manufacturer, SAPL.
The manufacture of the large fabrications and machining is retained within the Kingsbury Group whilst the majority of other components for head and ram assemblies are manufactured on its behalf by a well-established sub-contract supplier base, many of which are also UK companies.
Machine assembly and commissioning takes place at the Brighouse factory prior to installation at customers works.
Hinchliffe said: "We are expanding to meet demand and to continue to realize customer aspiration.
It is to help us meet the high level of demand that we have embarked upon the manufacturing agreement with SMPL.
Key industries such as the aerospace, automotive, defence, marine, power generation, rail and construction industries have a considerable requirement globally for machines such as those we design and manufacture.
As our manufacturing position strengthens, so interest in our machines is increasing.
More than that, we are proud to again be manufacturing a great British machine tool marque successfully.".
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