Brandauer presses on with £3.25m investment and King’s Award success

One of Birmingham’s most respected manufacturers has completed a £3.25m investment drive to celebrate a rare King’s Award for Enterprise achievement.

Brandauer, which employs 64 people at its Newtown factory, has just commissioned its fifth high-speed Yamada press that will help it deliver quick changeover sub-contract stamping capabilities – ideal for clients requiring high speed, precision accuracy and multi-tool transfers.

The installation follows the purchase of a state-of-the-art laser micro-cutting machine, a purchase that was made possible by a 40% grant from the ‘Aerospace Up’ programme and will give the business this technology for the first time.

Together, the investments will drive up capacity to help Brandauer make the most of its new precision modular tooling concept that is promising to deliver up to £6m of domestic and international sales over the next two years.

This involves the manufacture of globally competitive precision tools that can produce components for use in high specification construction applications, battery assemblies, MedTech devices and electrification to name but a few.

“It has been quite a week for the company, perhaps one of the proudest in our 162-year history,” explained Rowan Crozier, Chief Executive Officer.

“We’ve reinvented ourselves a lot since we started life manufacturing pen nibs and are now seen as one of the leading presswork and stamping specialists in the world, delivering micron accuracy components and micron precision tooling.”

He continued: “The King’s Award for Innovation is such an important title for us and really opens new doors across the globe. This is the second royal award we have achieved, following our International Queen’s Award in 2019 – not many companies hold two titles simultaneously.”

“The initial award had already helped us win new contracts, especially in the US where the Royal Family are highly revered. I’m hoping the Innovation title will showcase our new precision modular tooling capability to new audiences and help us achieve our aim of delivering significant growth in this area over the next few years.”

A significant amount of the IP generated from the modular tooling concept has been embedded into courses being delivered to OEMs, like JLR, at the Precision Tooling Academy in Aldridge, a joint venture between Brandauer and In-Comm Training.

This will be used in courses that will help train the toolmakers of the future, a vital engineering discipline that was slowly dying out with specialists retiring without passing on knowledge and experience.

Rowan concluded: “The UK must do better at commercialising some of the new technology we design and develop and that is exactly what we are doing with our innovation. We have already generated £2.5m of new business with clients involved in plumbing, laminations, and push-fit connectors, with a lot of new opportunities still in the pipeline.

“Our innovation is also creating new jobs in Birmingham, including a customer analyst, multiple toolmakers, operators and two apprentices – ensuring we have 10 apprentices in our business at all times.”