Alucast invests £1.8 million in industrial estate

From left to right: Alucast‘s Tony Sartorius, Anthony Evans and John Swift

One of the UK’s leading foundries has reinforced its commitment to the Black Country, with the purchase of the Moxley Industrial Estate. Alucast, which provides high pressure, low pressure, sand and gravity casting services, has spent £1.8 million on the site in Wednesbury, protecting the future of the three units it currently operates from and supporting estate neighbours Kingfisher Enamelling Company and BES Group Testing.

Located just a few miles from the M6 and M5 motorways, the five-acre site is well-known in the local manufacturing community and has been home to the casting expert for nearly 65 years. Alucast’s chairman Tony Sartorius said: “The Moxley Industrial Estate has been our base for as long as I have been with the company and has given us a great location to expand our high-pressure die-casting operations and our machine shops, which now have 25 CNCs. The opportunity arose to purchase the site, which means we now have full control of our future.

He continued: “Black Country is and always will be our home and, by securing ownership, it means we have the opportunity to ringfence our expansion ambitions. There are plans in place to look at how we can make the buildings ‘greener’, helping boost sustainability and reducing energy costs at the same time for our business and our tenants.”

Alucast is the only company in the UK that has the four main casting processes on one site — sand, gravity, high-pressure and low-pressure casting. Its ability to add a comprehensive machining capability to the mix has seen it build a global client base spanning OEMs, Tier Ones and primes in automotive, defence, construction products and, increasingly rail.

Next stage of expansion
The firm has recently appointed Anthony Evans as its new CEO to lead the next stage of its expansion — an expansion that is targeting £15 million of revenue by 2028. A former chairman of Sarginsons, he brings with him over 40 years’ experience across the sector in exploring new technologies, securing international businss and driving the development of the next generation of castings professionals. The latter is an area he is extremely passionate about following a previous role as national president of the Institute of Cast Metals Engineers and his membership of The Worshipful Company of Founders.

Mr Evans added: “I have known owners Tony Sartorius and John Swift for decades and have always respected what they have achieved with Alucast. This made it a very easy decision when I was approached to become the new CEO. We have got a big opportunity to innovate sand and low pressure casting by using new processes and materials, such as ALU-HPI, which produces an alloy that is one third of the weight of SG Iron yet still achieves key targets for ultimate tensile strength. Ultimately, it means we can cast complex and lightweight components in rapid turnaround times. There is lots of potential for this in the USA and this will be a key market for us going forward.”

Alucast, which holds ISO:9001, ISO:14001 and IATF:16949 quality accreditations, is a founder member of the Manufacturing Assembly Network (MAN), a group of nine manufacturers who share best practice and work together to explore new opportunities.