Sandvik celebrates opening of new Halesowen base

The 18,000 sq ft offices and state-of-the-art Sandvik Coromant Center at Manor Way has replaced the old Sandvik base where it had been since 1958.

Michael Eneberg, vice president of the Swedish group and head of global sales and marketing cut the ribbon at the opening.

The new facility is now part of a wider network of 15 Sandvik Coromant metal cutting centres around the world, and will be the UK’s first centre of its type.

It feature a high-tec innovation hub for metal cutting and has a space for visitors to learn more about Sandvik Coromant’s tools.

David Harbon, managing director of Sandvik Coromant UK and sales director for Sandvik in UK and Ireland, has been based at Halesowen since 1993.

"We wanted to stay here and were fortunate to have the space to do that," he said.

The project has represented an investment of more than £5 million and has been supported by the West Midlands Combined Authority.

The move to the new base, where 80 are based, began in September and was completed in February.

The old building is being demolished to make way for a proposed development of 61 homes from Spitfire Homes. A planning application has been lodged with Dudley Council.

Guests at the opening, which featured cutting demonstrations, included Mayor of Dudley, Sue Greenaway, and Halesowen and Rowley Regis MP James Morris.

Sandvik, which started in Sweden in 1858, has had a UK presence since 1871 and has been in the West Midlands since 1914, moving from Birmingham to Manor Way 44 years later.

Mr Harbon said Sandvik, which employs more than 1,000 in the UK and has a UK turnover of £350 million, had a rich heritage in Halesowen.

It has supplied Christmas trees from Sweden to the town centre and local schools since 1966 and will continue to do so into the future.

Sandvik sponsors Halesowen Town's youth academy and is an active member of Halesowen in Bloom and Halesowen Business Improvement District.

"This investment at our Halesowen site shows that the UK market is really important to us.

"We have managed to create another milestone in keeping with our UK heritage," he added.

Vice-president for strategy and business development at Sandvik Coromant, Magnus Ekback, was managing director of SC UK between 2010 and 2015 said the UK investment was playing a part in Sandvik's adoption of digitalisation, automation and sustainability.

The two new machines at the Halesowen centre would help customers in developing new innovative solutions and products.

The new Halesowen building was also going to play an important part in training of new staff.

Mr Eneberg said; "We have created a place where people can learn and work with our customers and partners."

"This new center will support our customers' engineering projects," he added.

Uk marketing manager Kim Olander said the building had been planned from 2017 and hgot baord approval in November 2018.

Ground was broken on the project, which was delayed by the pandemic, in 2021.

The new building has flexible desk space for 100 office-based workers.