20-year-partnership is still going strong

Today it not only stocks, but processes and delivers a wide range of mild steels and non-ferrous metals, predominantly to customers within a 45 mile radius of its central Derby location. With a demand for reliable, fast service, Eggleston needs a steadfast equipment supplier to meet its requirements so for the past 20 years it has been sourcing all of its cutting equipment from Prosaw.

Since the start of the recession in 2008/09, Eggleston Steel has seen a sharp rise in demand for the processing of its products.

“People no longer want to sit on stock they might not use for a long time; they want to order pre-cut steel products from us that fit exactly the job they’re working on,” says Richard Hewitt, managing director of Eggleston Steel.

“We keep a saw in each product area of our facility and to date have two manually operated saws and six bandsaws, all supplied by Prosaw,” he adds.

The first saw Eggleston purchased from Prosaw was a manually operated saw – simply used for cutting steel bars in half.

“We moved over to Prosaw after a previous supplier let us down, and have remained loyal ever since,” Mr Hewitt reveals. “At the time, Chris Burns – now company director at Prosaw – was a mechanic and used to service our machines, while I was more on the technical side – so you could say Chris and I have both risen through the ranks together in our respective companies.”

Asked what’s kept Eggleston loyal to Prosaw for the past 20 years, Mr Hewitt affirms: “I can’t sing their praises enough. It’s the people and the reliability. Everyone we deal with at Prosaw – be it on the phone, via email or face-to-face – is always professional and more than willing to help with whatever we need.”

The range of different brands that Prosaw stocks is another plus point, along with the maintenance and servicing of the machines: “Each saw is serviced twice a year so Prosaw can usually identify early on, anything that’s starting to play up with an older machine and fix it,” says Mr Hewitt. He acknowledges that such preventative maintenance ensures maximum uptime of his Prosaw equipment.

“Regular maintenance is vital to keep the machines running optimally,” he says. “Currently, the typical lifespan is five to eight years on a manually operated saw and 15-20 years on a bandsaw, so the Prosaw maintenance programme is clearly a sound investment.”

Prosaw www.prosaw.co.uk

Eggleston Steel www.egglestonsteel.co.uk