Embrace invests in ‘cutting edge’ machinery

Voortman V807 coping machine

Embrace Steel Group, a provider of steel frame building solutions, has announced an investment of £1.5 million in new, cutting-edge machinery as part of its wider strategy to become one of the major players in the British steel and wider construction industry. The £1.5 million investment will be used to purchase a Voortman V807 coping machine for Hambleton Steel, a steel designer and fabricator headquartered in North Yorkshire which was acquired by Embrace in 2022.

The new equipment is equipped with blast and handling, includes the latest Hypertherm XPR high-definition plasma-cutting unit and will enable Hambleton to streamline traditionally time-consuming manual activities via an automated process. Crucially, this will allow the business to significantly increase its operational capacity.

The latest news comes at an exciting time for Embrace following the announcement in April of the milestone acquisition of Shufflebottom, a steel fabrication company based in South Wales, and the appointment of Matt Gibson as its new COO announced last month. Embrace currently has a combined Group revenue of around £55 million with plans to increase this figure to over £100 million within the next two years. Mr Gibson said: “Our latest investment underlines our clear commitment to continually enhancing the operational capabilities of the Embrace Group by investing in our people and technology.

“The British steel industry has long been neglected of investment for decades with smaller businesses across the UK in urgent need of modernising their operations. We are confident that with this investment, Hambleton Steel will have the cutting-edge technology readily available to rapidly grow the business in the years to come.”