Kitagawa Europe places collets order with Holmes

Edited by the Manufacturingtalk editorial team Sep 23, 2003

Machine tool and collet manufacturing specialist, Holmes UK has won its second major contract in six weeks, through the signing of an agreement to supply Kitagawa Europe with precision collets.

Birmingham-based machine tool and collet manufacturing specialist, Holmes UK has won its second major contract in six weeks, through the signing of an agreement to supply Kitagawa Europe with precision varibore collets for its newly-launched ranges of CRS and QCRL machine tool collet chucks.

The contract initially covers imperial and metric varibore type collets with capacities from 1.6mm to 80mm diameter, but is expected to extend to the supply of spring and Master type variants during the next few months.

The new order comes less than two months after Holmes UK won a GBP 500,000 export order to supply a major US customer, and follows the company's GBP 500,000 investment in advanced CNC machining centres and grinding equipment earlier in the year.

"Before making our final decision, we evaluated several suppliers' capabilities," says Kitagawa's sales director, Colin Birch.

"We were impressed by Holmes commitment to match our own stringent quality standards.

In addition, the company's state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment gave us confidence in its ability to meet our volume requirements and delivery lead times." Commenting on the new order, Holmes UK's managing director, Tim Holmes said: "We are delighted to have been selected by Kitagawa, particularly as the business has been won in the face of stiff international competition.

It fully justifies our decision to invest heavily in the production facilities at our Birmingham headquarters.

This has not only improved our overall competitiveness, but significantly increased our capacity for complex and medium to high volume sub-contract machining work too.

"I am certain it will prove to be a decisive factor in winning further new orders in the future." About Holmes UK - established in 1983, Holmes UK specialises in the repair, maintenance and refurbishment of all Wickman multi-spindle machine tools.

The company's comprehensive service is supported by ex-stock availability of collets, feed fingers and other less popular Wickman spares.

Holmes UK also offers its own range of standard collets and feeders for manual and CNC machine tools, as well as a growing portfolio of complementary machining products.