Willenhall lock group invests £800k in production
After toughing out the recession, locks company Assa Abloy is growing again - and has now unveiled plans for a new £800,000 machine that will create eight jobs.
After toughing out the recession, locks company Assa Abloy is growing again - and has now unveiled plans for a new £800,000 machine that will create eight jobs.
Bosses said the time was right to start expanding again. It is the kind of economic good news that means there is room for optimism in the West Midlands economy.
The new automatic press line will be built at the former Josiah Parkes' Portobello Works, where Union locks were originally made.
Assa Abloy has its UK headquarters at the works in School Street, Willenhall, and retaining a skilled workforce in an area with a proud tradition of lock making has been a key part of its strategy.
South African-born managing director John Middleton, who has been in charge of the UK, Middle East and Africa region for three years, said it has been tough in recent years but that the new investment was a welcome shot in the arm for the business.
He said: "We have been through a series of contractions, but in order to survive it was necessary to do that. We have moved from 12 sites around the UK to three sites in the Black Country and one in Belfast."
Assa Abloy now employs about 800 in the Black Country with about 550 of those involved in production at the Portobello Works and at Chubb Lock Custodial in Wednesfield. It also has a distribution centre in Cannock Road, Wolverhampton.
Mr Middleton said that competitors bringing in cheap Chinese products had forced Assa Abloy to do some outsourcing but it had been determined to stay manufacturing in the Black Country.
"We are now doing late configuration here as well as primary manufacturing," said.
"We were already taking steps to stay ahead of our competitors before the recession, but when the recession hit we had to sell companies and bring costs down to ultimately make us a stronger company.
"It has been successful and the company is now prospering. We are proud to have kept a tradition of lock making in Willenhall."
The UK operation has seen growth of six per cent this year so far. It is still the UK's largest lock group and last year invested £4 million. Assa Abloy has also begun a process of expanding again in the UK and bought Walsall-based Paddock two years ago for its door products and that has recently been relocated to Willenhall. Cheltenham-based Securistyle was also bought for its window products, along with, a month ago, Traka in Milton Keynes. Assa Abloy, which has its international head office in Sweden, was formed in 1994 and employs 32,000 worldwide.
It bought the Black Country operation in 2000 from Williams Holdings which then owned Yale, Union and Chubb. It now only makes one Chubb product, the custodial lock, as Williams only had a 10-year licence for the other Chubb lock lines. It makes more than 20,000 different products and variations in the Black Country under many names including Union, Yale and Besam.
Mr Middleton said that exports was the key to the growth of the business with Eastern Europe a key area at the moment.
He said that the the current recruitment drive was focussing on sales in an effort to keep abreast with new technology.
