Drop forgings firm invests £1m to meet growth plans

A BLACK Country manufacturer has invested more than £1m in a new state-of-the-art forge to help ensure its can increase sales to customers in the automotive, petrochemical and rail sectors.

Kimber Drop Forgings, which employs 27 people at its Gawne Lane site in Cradley Heath, plans to achieve £5m annual sales by the end of the year.

Backed by the Regional Growth Fund and Sandwell Borough Council, the investment was celebrated at a high profile opening ceremony featuring Mike Lyons (HS2 Programme Director), Rachel Eade (Business Growth Service) and a mix of customers and suppliers.

Delegates heard how the new facility will be fully air-conditioned, sound proofed and features a 70cwt hammer suite capable of producing forged parts up to 75kg – a third larger than its previous best.

The company is also having to employ five new people to ensure it can meet capacity. Several of those are expected to be new apprentices.

Larry Joyce, group chairman, Kimber, said: “You don’t hear about many new forges being built in the UK, so we’re delighted to put our sector on the map with this sizeable investment.

“Like many businesses we had a tough time during the recession of 2009 and had to make decisions that didn’t come easy. However, we managed to battle through it and have now got to the stage where turnover has hit £4m…a slight increase on what we were doing before the global dip.”

In order to move to the next stage of its development, the company realised it had to improve capacity so it could supply customers with larger components.

“Rather than patch up existing plant, we decided to build a new forge…a rarity in the Black Country in recent years,” he added.

The £1m investment is now complete and Kimber Drop Forgings is striving to attract new work to feed into the facility.

This will focus on securing additional contracts to manufacture automotive suspension and brake components, whilst enquiries to supply some of the major tier 1s in rail have started in earnest.

The firm has also contributed to the reshoring drive, taking the decision to bring oil & gas pipe clamps previously produced in Poland back to the UK. This is £100,000 of work and will directly employ two local people.

Geoff Turnbull, managing director, Kimber, said: “One of the things I’m really excited about is that we can now offer a turnkey package, from really small components to large ones weighing over 75kg.

“This immediately opens up opportunities to supply new oil and gas customers, not to mention making stronger inroads into automotive, construction, mining and tunneling.

“We’ve conservatively said £5m, but with what we have in the pipeline I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t hit £7m sales by 2016.”

Established just after the World War Two in 1946, Kimber Drop Forgings supplies high quality forgings and machined parts in steel, stainless steel, carbon, aluminium and super duplex.

The firm currently exports 20% of its annual turnover to customers in Canada, Dubai, Europe, Malaysia and the United States.

At any one time, it can call upon the additional services and capabilities of Mills in Coventry and Taront and Admire Coatings, both of which are located on its site in Cradley Heath.