Expansion & New Machinery for Coventry Engineering Business
A specialist precision engineering company has moved to larger premises near Coventry and invested in new machinery to expand into new markets.
D&S Engineering (Coventry) has left its 4,200 sq ft premises on the Bayton Road Industrial Estate in Exhall to move to a 11,000 sq ft unit on the same business park.
The family-owned business, which employs 12 staff, manufactures precision parts for the aircraft and defence industry and has invested £190,000 in two state-of-the art CNC and CMM machines.
D&S Engineering Managing Director Richard Maconnachie has also appointed Darin Tudor to oversee business development after being connected with the aerospace expert by Jeremy Moore from the Coventry and Warwickshire LEP Growth Hub.
Richard said D&S Engineering was involved in a niche product area which was focused on total reliability.
He said: “We have 45 years of experience in precision engineering but by more than doubling the size of our premises, we are looking to expand into making products for airframe manufacturers where the quantities are much higher.
“We are also looking to diversify into civil usage since we have bought our sixth Swiss designed five-axis CNC high specification machine and a further CNC, CMM machine, making a total of four, which gives us extra capacity to manufacture larger products.
“We have the expertise and quality management processes in place and we have the opportunity to expand this facility by a further 10,000 sq ft which we will need if we gain further work and need to invest in another CMM machine.”
Darin said Richard’s company has very special skills and the aerospace and defence industries are pretty similar.
“D&S already has the ISO 9001 and ISO AS9100 quality management systems which underlines the quality of their work and they are among only a small number of companies in the UK to have obtained the SC21 bronze which is an improvement programme designed to increase the performance of suppliers so this is quite an achievement,” he said.
“Achieving those standards means they have broken down the barriers to entry into the aerospace sector and we are already in talks with several of the largest aerospace companies in the UK.
“The next stage is to encourage organisations to come to visit D&S’s new facilities which have huge historical significance since it is where the Jaguar XK 220 was built.”
Jeremy Moore, of the CWLEP Growth Hub, said: “The work we do at the Growth Hub isn’t just about helping businesses with grant applications for funding to buy machinery or expand into new premises as the meeting with D&S Engineering has proved.
“It sometimes only takes a few minutes to understand the requirements of a business and we were able to introduce Richard and Darin which is already providing to be mutually-beneficial, and that’s why businesses should engage with the Growth Hub because there is a whole host of support that we can provide.”
The CWLEP Growth Hub is part of the Coventry & Warwickshire Business Support Programme which is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
Caption: From the left, Richard Maconnachie (left) and Darin Tudor (right) of D&S Engineering with Jeremy Moore of the CWLEP Growth Hub
