Nottingham-based CNTL Ltd was founded in 1992 by Steve Rawson to provide inspection and measuring services, but his need to stretch himself led him into manufacturing.

“My friend, Dave Dixon, joined me from the automotive industry, and we started to look at the fabrication of automotive parts.”

A pivotal moment for CNTL was when Rolls-Royce came calling. “It was just a twist of fate. Being on their doorstep, we were approached by the maintenance department to mend a few brackets and do some guarding for their machines; it grew from there.

"Now we have a good working relationship with them which spans the globe. In fact, over the past year we have worked for Rolls-Royce sites in America, Germany and France, as well as the UK.”

The company now has 21 employees, with 16 operators on the shopfloor looking after 16 machines. It has a strong presence in utilities, where it provides services for water and sewage plants, the construction sector — with the manufacture of latforms and cages — and the automotive sector — with work for Jaguar Land Rover.

However, its relationship with Rolls-Royce remains vital; it has provided support for the latter’s recalibration and production equipment on a global basis, as well as manufacturing aerospace components.

The relationship with Mazak (www.mazak.eu) has been central to the growth of CNTL. “It used to take us 12hr to manufacture a complicated serrated component that goes into a printing machine. With our first Mazak — a four-axis turning centre supplied as a turn-key package — we brought the machining time down to 2hr.”

CNTL’s most recent acquisitions are two Smart 530C vertical machining centres, which are credited with opening further doors for the company.

“We do a lot of work for Bombardier, in particular for their test rigs and lifting tools. We were recently approached by their coach-building team at short notice. If it wasn’t for the Mazaks, we wouldn’t have been able to do the required work for them.”