R&D tax relief support helps Copper Alloys forge ahead

Copper Alloys, which employs 30 people at its facility in Burslem, has secured a string of contracts over the last 12 months with customers in the aerospace, defence, marine and petrochemical sectors.

This expansion has been supported by Jumpstart, which has worked with the company to generate more than £100,000 of R&D tax relief over the last three years, all of which has been directed into the development of new alloys for applications as diverse as ice cream machines and nuclear submarines.

Ivan Richardson, technical manager at Copper Alloys, said: “Current managing director John Dudley started the business in 2000 as a continuous casting firm, but the management team quickly realised they needed to differentiate themselves from rivals.

“They decided to focus on developing their technical knowledge and invested heavily in recruiting experts in metallurgy, casting technicians and machining specialists, giving them the ability to take on extremely complex projects.”

He continued: “Today, we are now seen as a leading manufacturer of copper and nickel-based forged and finished machined components and have high profile clients across the world. One of our major defence customers even gave us their prestigious ‘Trust’ award for the reliability and quality of our supply.”

Copper Alloys, which holds AS 9100 and ISO 9001 quality accreditations, started to explore ways in which government funding could support its expansion in 2013. However, after being weighed down by paperwork and failing to meet certain criteria for European funding, the company decided to take a different route and enlisted the support of Jumpstart to see if it qualified for tax relief for its R&D work.

Copper Alloys www.copperalloys.net

Jumpstart www.jumpstartuk.co.uk