CNC sliding head auto sales pick up

Sliding-headstock, multi-axis CNC lathe supplier, Star Micronics GB, said trading was quiet until February, when some GBP 750,000 worth of orders were taken.

For sliding-headstock, multi-axis CNC lathe supplier, Star Micronics GB, trading was quiet over the Christmas period up to the last week of January, according to managing director, Bob Hunt.

Then business started to pick up and by the end of January, order intake for the month was "acceptable".

February showed signs of business returning to its buoyant 2004 level, however, with GBP 750,000 worth of orders taken.

Two were for twin-machine packages, one involving entry-level machines.

Another order, from an automotive subcontractor in the Midlands, was notable for the high degree of applications engineering to be carried out by Star to achieve competitive cycle times for steering gear component manufacture.

The beginning of March showed promise, with a GBP 160,000 repeat order in the first week from a company on the Isle of Wight for a high-specification Star SV-32.

On the back of strong trading in 2004 and an ever-increasing installed base of Star machines in the UK, two further staff were recruited over the turn of the year - an applications engineer and a service engineer.

"Both are customer-facing, non-sales positions which are key to driving forward a successful machine tool business", commented Hunt.

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