Matt Lacey, HV Wooding’s sales and marketing director with the new AgieCharmilles Cut E 600Hythe-based
HV Wooding, a leading precision engineering specialist, has completed a major investment drive as its eyes a £2 million opportunity in the electric vehicle (EV) market. The company, which employs 98 people, has spent more than £250,000 on creating a dedicated manufacturing cell for producing bonded stators and rotors, as well as optimising its rapidly expanding busbar production capabilities. The investment boost has seen it install new ovens and benches and the acquisition of a ‘state of the art’ AgieCharmilles Cut E 600 wire erosion machine.
This will help the company deliver highly precise and accurate results in metal cutting and shaping, reducing turnround times in the process and supporting orders to aerospace, automotive and the medical sectors.
Matt Lacey, HV Wooding sales and marketing manager, said: “There are so many opportunities for us in the EV market and this investment gives us the capacity to go after millions of pounds worth of new work. The unit refurbishment, coupled with the new AgieCharmilles wire EDM, will allow us to support our global customer base with the production of prototype and small series production bonded stators and rotors with the best possible lead times. Having the additional wire erosion capabilities will also support the highly complex and intricate parts we are increasingly working on, not to mention boosting our capacity for manufacturing bonded stacks.”
He continued: “Sales are up about 20% over the last two years, so now is the perfect time to invest in our factory and make sure we position ourselves for the next five to ten years of growth.”
HV Wooding has over 50 years’ of experience in providing precision engineering solutions for clients in over 25 different countries. The company offers busbar manufacture, wire erosion, laser cutting, CNC machining, metal stamping and assembly, with all work carried out to exacting quality standards governed by ISO9001:2015, ISO45001 and the environmental ISO14001 accreditations.
Turnover has risen from £9.9 million in 2020/21 to a projected £12 million for the end of this financial year, with the firm also in the process of recruiting up to ten new people in a variety of roles on the shopfloor and in the offices.
Mr Lacey concluded: “UK manufacturing has emerged from the pandemic stronger than before and, despite the challenges around Brexit, we still see lots of opportunities both at home and abroad. There is significant interest in electrification as the automotive sector looks to get ahead of the game with the ban on combustion engines in new cars coming into play in 2030 and the energy sector continuing its growth. Our precision engineering capabilities are perfect for producing busbars, stators and rotors that will help power the vehicles of the future.”