Chris Weston kicks off the 50th anniversary proceedings at Guhring UKBirmingham-based
Guhring UK celebrated its 50th anniversary in style last week with a celebratory event at its Birmingham headquarters attended by
Machinery Market. Hosted at the company’s impressive manufacturing site in Estone Drive, Guhring UK welcomed technical partners, customers and suppliers, along with a number of special guests including Chairman of the Board, Oliver Gühring, a direct descendant of the founder of the German parent company which was established in Albstadt in 1898.
Guhring UK began life 50 years ago in a rented facility a few miles from its existing site as an operation that was only selling drills to local manufacturers with a ‘walk-in’ trade counter for ordering. Fast forward to 2023 and the company operates out of a 60,000ft
2 manufacturing facility that offers a range of services including solid carbide and HSS round tooling, PCD tools with a complete service for bespoke special tooling production, regrinding and service, coating, and tool design. The company services customers in a wide range of industrial sectors, such as automotive, aerospace, and machine tool manufacturing.
Opening proceedings, Guhring UK managing director Chris Weston presented the company’s first product catalogue from 50 years ago and explained how the company evolved from a small local supplier into one of the UK’s most successful cutting tool manufacturers.
He said: “Today, the range has grown exponentially. We can now offer almost every rotary cutting tool from drills, reamers, taps and milling cutters in HSS, carbide, PCD and Cermet along with grooving tools, tool holders and vending and tool management systems. Some of these tools are manufactured here in the UK and we also hold up to £5 million of standard product lines for next-day delivery.”
Looking to the future, Mr Weston added: “Moving to this fantastic facility in 2017 was a huge leap forward and it will be the springboard to help us grow over the next 50 years. We also have 35,000ft
2 of additional land available to expand our manufacturing capabilities – future-proofing our business for the long term.”
Viewing the business from a global perspective, Mr Gühring (pictured left cutting the cake) said he was extremely proud of the UK facility. He discussed how the 47 worldwide subsidiaries achieved record growth in 2022, something that is forecast to continue through 2023 and beyond, despite worldwide geo-political challenges such as the Ukraine war, restrictions on business with Russia, US and China tensions, inflationary pressures, and the disruption caused by Covid-19.
Gareth Jones, managing director of In-Comm Training gave a presentation on the future of manufacturing and why companies like Guhring that invest heavily in apprenticeships and staff training are the future of UK manufacturing.
Following the presentations, guests were offered a tour of the facility and then invited to test their skills with some fun activities such as golf, and driving a racing car simulator. There was also Robot Wars arena set up by Guhring customer RoboChallenge for visitors to challenge each other.
The event held on 19 May was followed by a ‘family day’ on the Saturday. Employees were able to invite their relatives to the facility to tour the factory and participate in more fun-filled celebrations.
In September, parent company Gühring will be celebrating its 125th anniversary in business in Germany.