146 year-old British engineering firm starts £300K investment drive

James Lister and Sons, which is still in family ownership, is in the process of installing a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system across its seven sites and has just taken delivery of a new CNC bending machine to support a 20% rise in its tube manipulation division.

The company has also recently become the 10^th member of the Manufacturing Assembly Network (MAN), a collective of subcontract manufacturers and an engineering design agency that work together to win orders and share best practice.

Bosses at the firm believe strength in numbers and championing UK industry will help it overcome the coronavirus uncertainty and provide the foundations for future expansion following Brexit.

“We are very proud of our British heritage and this was a key driver in us targeting involvement in the MAN Group and we see membership potentially opening up £1 million of new opportunities in the first 12 months,” explained Peter Davies, chief executive at Lister.

He continued: “A lot of members already use us for their engineering supplies and, now we are part of the collective, we will look at ways where our expertise in fluid power and tube manipulation can add real value to MAN. There’s a number of joint projects we’ve already got our eye on.”

“I’m also keen to learn from the experiences and knowledge of nine other managing directors in how we can make our business even better, whether that is sharing apprentices, entering new markets or looking at imaginative ways where we can save money on energy.”

Lister employs nearly 150 people across its headquarters in Smethwick and six other sites in the West Midlands and South Wales and is best known for its fluid power business and engineering consumables division.

This includes supplying hand tools, cutting tools and lubricants, workwear, hygiene products, hydraulic/pneumatic components and assemblies and delivering specialist capabilities like laser etching, 3D printing and the manufacture of high-pressure valves and touring car air jacks.

The biggest growth area in 2020 is its tube manipulation business, with the company able to bend tube in sizes ranging from 4mm up to 75mm and in metals such as steel, copper and aluminium.

Recent investment in a new Unison Breeze machine also gives it capacity to make components that can’t be produced via traditional bending.

Mr Davies, who is joined in the management team by Tim and Mike Cotterill, the great great grandchildren of the founder, is targeting turnover growth of £17 million, despite the current global uncertainty. “Investing in making us more efficient and diversifying our manufacturing operations, combined with membership of MAN, will deliver the growth and hopefully lay the foundation for more ambitious expansion plans once we have some global stability,” Mr Davies concluded.

MAN www.man-group.co.uk

James Lister and Sons www.lister.co.uk