A pre-Christmas gathering at Citizen Machinery UK of 79 employees, spouses and partners, plus a group of long-serving retired employees and specialist suppliers celebrated Geoff Bryant’s 43 years of service, of which 25 were given to the company as managing director.
Significant in the last 12 months in his departure planning role, which involved liaison and progressive hand-over to the new management team of Edward James as MD, Darren Wilkins Deputy MD and Jon Hart as Finance Director, was a record breaking year of trading for the Bushey based business supporting the ranges of Citizen Cincom CNC sliding head and Miyano fixed head turn-mill centres.
Said Mr James: “I must compliment Geoff who has set such a high standard and raised the profile of the business over so many years. He has created an enviable platform that enables us to further develop the company and its people, in particular involving keen younger employees. This will enable us to provide customers with the level of support that such a high technology based product deserves.”
He followed on to describe how with Citizen’s recent announcement of a £2 million investment in a regional facility in the West Midlands, is destined to become a European conference facility and has been billed by the Japanese as its European Centre of Excellence. He said: “In particular, the interest and rapid take-up by customers following the launch of the Citizen patented and market leading Low Frequency Vibration (LFV) machining technology on the latest Citizen and forth coming Miyano machines, means that sales forecasts through 2018 show an even greater level of growth.”
Mr Bryant has committed further time to serve the machine tool industry and in particular the members of the MTA in his role as its President. He accepted this position following dedicated support of the MACH exhibition through his involvement on the MTA’s Exhibition Committee from 2001 rising to become its chairman from 2005 until late in 2016 when he took over the presidency.
He will continue to be available to provide support to the new management team with the knowledge and experience gained from his initiation to production engineering direct from university in 1974 with NC Engineering under MD Ken Jeffreys and the new to the UK, Citizen NC controlled product range. Mr Bryant took over as MD in 1991 and was later heavily involved with the negotiations with the Japanese when the company became its wholly-owned subsidiary Citizen Machinery UK in 2006.
Adding to the farewell retirement event, Mr James applauded Godfrey Mills, who has worked with the sales team since 1999. Mr Mills told the Christmas gathering about his 18 years of adventure keeping up with the rapid machine tool developments and ever expanding and challenging needs of his customer base forever demanding and receiving the benefits from the latest Citizen and Miyano technology. Also congratulated by the MD for long term commitment was Customer Manager Trevor Haase. He is responsible for post-sales support and was celebrating 30 years of man and boy service to the company.
