Foundry designer Mechatherm beats its £25m turnover target

Chairman Andrew Riley announced the achievement at the 41-year-old Kingswinford company's celebration lunch to mark its achievement in winning a third Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The Lord Lieutenant of the West Midlands, Paul Sabapathy, presented him and managing director Chris Emes with the award for international trade in the Earls Suite at the Copthorne Hotel, Brierley Hill on Friday( August 1).

Mr Sabapathy praised the outstanding leadership of the privately-owned company's senior directors in building on the fantastic work done by its founders.

"The reason for your excellent results is hard work focused on quality and the dedication of an excellent competent workforce.

"You have exceptional people with undoubted technical ability and problem solving skills. We need self-motivated problem solvers and you have got them in spades," he said.

Mr Sabapathy said the firm had been successful in breaking into new markets with the environmentally-friendly recycling of aluminium as the basis for its success.

Mr Riley said that as well as achieving the target of reaching £25m annual turnover in just two years, Mechatherm currently had £20m of orders on its books and strong potential sales.

"I would like to thank everyone in the company for their efforts in achieving this.

"The sales department has travelled many miles around the world to get the orders," he added.

Mechatherm has grown its turnover from £10m in 2011 to almost £14m a year later and £17m last year.

Mr Emes, whose father was one of the firm's founders, said that 98 per cent of the company's turnover now came from exports.

He said that every department of Mechatherm had performed at the top of its ability and expanded to the limit of its capacity to help the company to win the award.

"Our product has become increasingly sophisticated and bigger. Our first furnace has three tonnes capacity but we have recently supplied one with 180 tonnes molten aluminium capacity.

"We are constantly updating our product to meet market demands," explained Mr Emes.

He said most current order were in re-melting or recycling aluminium and many different types of aluminium scrap had to be provided for within the furnaces it created.

"Our recycling clients want to purchase the least expensive aluminium and convert it through our furnaces to the highest possible product," he added.

In the last three years, during which the award was adjudicated, Mechatherm had won orders in Taiwan, Venezuela, China and the United States as well as maintaining good orders in its traditional markets.

"To get orders signed off its has needed every conceivable person in Mechatherm to perform at 100 per cent efficiency

Mr Riley said the company was looking to new areas of the globe for business and had just seen an Indian contract, which had originally been placed in 2008, re-activated.

"We are now involved in 38 furnaces in India," he added.

So far this year the company, which is based in High Street, has recruited eight new staff to help with growth and is looking to add a mechanical electrical apprentice and an engineer in the near future.

"We are not stopping still and want to continues to move forward. We have a bright future," said Mr Riley.

The company has also used Growth Accelerators funding to step up training for directors and managers to enable them to handle the continuing growth of the business

All Mechatherm's employees were invited to attend the lunch and other guests included the Mayor of Dudley, Councillor Margaret Aston, customers, suppliers, Confederation of British Industry representatives and members of the Aluminium Federation.