Wolverhampton-based EWS (Manufacturing) (www.ewsmanufacturing.co.uk), which is part of Arc Specialist Engineering Group, is targeting significant sales growth in a range of new markets as a result of a £500,000 investment.

Working closely with high-speed press specialist Bruderer UK (www.bruderer.co.uk), the company has installed a 250-tonne Zani ‘Power Master’ press that is already achieving high stroke rates and has been integrated into a rolling mill line supplied by local firm Formit.

Russ Cooper, technical director at EWS, said: “A large proportion of our sales is directed to supplying steel reinforcement for the fenestration sector.

"While this will remain a core part of the business, our intention is to expand our cold-rolled expertise into new markets.

"To achieve this, we needed to invest in a different type of machine that was faster than what we had already and could accommodate the intricate nature of the products we are targeting.

"I’d previously worked with Zani presses, so I knew how reliable and flexible they were — and the type of stroke performance they deliver.

“We approached Bruderer UK — the sole distributor in this country — with our plan and started to look at specifying the right machine to get exactly what we wanted.

"It took about six months from initial enquiry to the machine being delivered, installed and commissioned. It is now fully up and running — and operating at the volumes we need to meet projected sales.”