Our Strategy

Success in the UK mechanical engineering industry has not been easy to achieve in recent years, but its requirements can be simply stated.  A successful UK-based engineering business must do difficult things and must do them well.

We define “difficult things” as activities with high engineering content delivering products or processes with the following types of characteristic:

• High specification & demanding applications
• High entry barriers and well defended intellectual property
• Constant product development influencing customers designs
• Customer or regulatory approval difficult or expensive
• High degree of process know-how
• Difficult to replicate or transfer
• Serious consequences for product failure
• Demanding logistics requiring closeness to the customer

These characteristics provide a strong base, but to take profitable advantage of them it is essential that a business is properly managed and performs well.  This means achieving outstanding customer service notably in delivery and quality performance; pro-active product and technology development; a competitive cost position; “lean manufacturing” activity in all areas; and a rigorous & analytically driven financial environment.

We believe that an engineering business that can meet the “difficult things, done well” challenge will provide a profitable future for its shareholders, and this is at the core of our plans for the future.

Our strategy for the coming years will be to enhance shareholder value through the organic growth of our existing businesses and the acquisition of engineering companies that operate in demanding areas and have the potential for growth and performance improvement under our ownership, while continuing to respond to attractive bolt on opportunities to enhance current activities.  We will particularly look for acquisitions where the technology is rooted in mechanical engineering, with English as the working language and which are easily reached from our UK base.