An industrial collective is celebrating a major milestone in its history by appointing a new chairman to lead it over the next 12 months.

The Manufacturing Assembly Network (MAN) (www.man-group.co.uk), a collaboration of eight West Midlands-based sub-contract manufacturers and an engineering design agency, has secured a new order from the renewable-energy sector, taking its combined sales since it was formed to over £75 million.

The focus is now on reaching £100 million, according to Adam Cunningham, who is the CEO of Muller Holdings and the new chairman of MAN (taking over from Brandauer’s Rowan Crozier).

Mr Cunningham said: “We are fairly unique in being able to bring together such a wide diversity of engineering disciplines under one banner.

"Our core philosophy is to work together to win new contracts, as that is what keeps us all in business. Over the years, we have been very successful in doing that.

“The focus is very much on the future and looking at new markets that lend themselves to our strengths.

"Electrification is one of these, and we are leveraging our relationship with WMG to make real strides in this market, while alternative powertrains are also presenting a number of new opportunities.

“The other thing I want to pursue is exploring how more member companies can introduce automation and robotics into their processes to increase productivity and competitiveness.

"This isn’t at the expense of jobs — quite the opposite. If we can work smarter, we can win more contracts and in turn create new positions.”

The Manufacturing Assembly Network was established in 2003 using funding from Advantage West Midlands to help combat
industrial uncertainty in the area. When AWM was disbanded, member firms decided to carry on with MAN, agreeing to self-fund the collaboration.