Last month, the GF Machining Solutions (www.gfms.com/com/en.html) showroom in Coventry hosted the GTMA’s Meet the Toolmaker event.

Held in conjunction with the British Plastics Federation, this event allowed visitors searching for tooling solutions and moulded components to meet tool-making specialists.

GTMA (www.gtma.co.uk) chief executive Julia Moore said: “We have developed Meet the Toolmaker to be informal but very professional, and the feedback this year has been extremely positive.

The event complements our Reshoring UK initiative, which is a collaboration of leading industrial engineering and technology associations working together to help manufacturers connect with suppliers that can deliver the required products and services.

“Reshoring UK covers the whole supply chain, from concept to product and process design, through process engineering, tooling and manufacturing methods to finishing and inspection. We know there are significant projects being returned to the UK from overseas, and the event provided the opportunity for progress to be made in this direction.”

Matt Jones, marketing manager for Totnes-based Amtek Precision Engineers (www.amtek-precision.com), said: “For networking and business enquiries, the GTMA’s Meet the Toolmaker was a great event —not too big and not too small. It seemed as though we spoke to almost everyone who visited, and I can confirm that every interaction had value. The day was very worthwhile for us, and being informal kept it light-hearted and fun.”

Ms Moore added: “It is impossible to put a tangible value on such GTMA events, because many of the enquiries and the projects subsequently secured are subject to non-disclosure agreements, but we certainly see a benefit from letting all the industry sectors of UK manufacturing know about the advanced tooling and moulding capabilities available here in the UK.”