A specialist Yorkshire producer of profile (shaped) wire for sectors including medical, aerospace, oil and gas and subsea, is targeting expansion following a £1 million investment drive by its parent company.
Precision Shaped Wire (PSW), which employs four people at its factory in Batley, is celebrating 15 years of manufacturing in 2021 and has plans in place to take sales past pre-Covid-19 levels by the end of the year.
Part of Alloy Wire International (AWI), the company is also looking to mark the milestone year by taking part in ‘Wired for Good’, a campaign that will see it boost its work supporting charities and, importantly, committing to becoming carbon neutral.
This means all manufacturing, deliveries and even employee commuting emissions will need to be offset and the firm has partnered with a number of specialist organisations to achieve this, with the focus on woodland creation, solar and wind power, as well as sustainability projects.
Adrian Howker, PSW divisional manager, said: “Our 15th anniversary of being owned by AWI coincides with the culmination of what has been the most challenging 12 months ever for the business, with staff going above and beyond to support the global fightback against the pandemic.
“Despite the challenges, sales have held up well at our site in Yorkshire and demand for our specialist profile wire has surged since January this year and this bodes well for the future.”
He continued: “We have got some really big plans for our birthday celebrations, including making a positive social difference. With sustainability on many people’s agenda, we felt the time was right to become ‘carbon neutral’, a significant commitment when you consider across AWI we produce wire and export to over 65 countries.
“’Wired for Good’, which also marks Alloy Wire International’s 75th birthday in 2021, forms the basis of many of our activities and we are looking forward to announcing more positive projects in the coming weeks.”
Precision Shaped Wire, which manufactures profiles from 0.4 to 12.7mm in ‘high-performance’ alloys and in order quantities from 3m to 3,000kg, has also boosted its workforce recently by adding Hayden Teasdale to its production team.
Trained in CNC programming and forklift truck driving, he will be responsible for operating wire rolling machinery, CNC lathes and the cylindrical grinder, as well as inspecting tooling and final products.