Mollart Engineering closed its first year of trading following its management buyout with a strong order book for 2017 in each of its sectors of operation of machine tools, subcontract machining and tooling. With the start of its second year it is announcing plans to create more skilled jobs following positive reporting on each of its business targets through 2016.
The buyout management team of Chris Barker, Mike Pragnell, Ian Petitt, Wayne Thomas and Jon Upton is responding to growth opportunities by increasing its workforce of 130 people by recruiting additional skilled engineers at both the Chessington headquarters and the Resolven production centre in South Wales.
As a result of the profitable first year of trading and potential through 2017, Mollart is planning to issue bonus payments to the workforce which said Sales Director Ian Petitt: “This reflects the very positive input by the whole team to support the business with help given to improve efficiency, customer support and productivity as we take up the opportunities especially in overseas markets.”
He maintains: “Our export order book for deep hole drilling and special purpose machine tools is very strong throughout 2017 and with the appointment of a new agent in India, this has already opened new doors from which we are extremely confident will further strengthen our build programme into 2018.”
Subcontract operations, which are carried out on both sites, have been boosted by the North American automotive sector especially for rough, and semi-finishing moulds and dies. Many have significant deep hole drilling requirements as well as associated milling and profiling using
Mollart’s multi-axis integrated machining capability. The company is also reporting steady business from subsea while oil and gas customers are beginning to increase orders again especially on exploration following the slump due to oil prices.
According to Chris Barker, director responsible for tooling operations, through the first quarter of 2017 increased activity in the supply of tools for grooving, forming and especially surface finishing through roller burnishing and higher performance deep hole drilling tooling looks certain to continue through the year. He said: “Customers are responding to competitive pressures to improve productivity and machine tool utilisation while increasing machining consistency and quality. This is certainly paying-off through our application support.”
