Investment in automation and people puts PP C & A on course for £40m sales

PP Control & Automation in Landywood Green, Cheslyn Hay, which works with over 20 of the world’s most successful machinery builders in a wide range of markets including energy, packaging, food processing, printing, material handling and high technology sectors, has seen sales rise from £24m to £36m over the last 12 months.

It is now looking to add a further £4m of orders by investing in more automation at its factory, starting with the £250,000 integration of a new Komax Zeta 640 harness machine fitted with twister, ferrule station and 2-off crimp press.

Utilising improved crimp force monitoring and enhanced quality software validation, this technology can group cables together to simplify build orders, feed cables at up to 22mph and deliver automatic changeover capability, so that 36 cables can be loaded and ink colour changed from black to white when required.

Ian Knight, chief information officer, commented: “We are massive advocates of combining investment in automation with investment in people and this blended approach seems to be paying off with a record year in 2023 and strong growth prospects for the next 12 months.

“The Komax investment brings the latest crimping technology to our state-of-the-art facility and will provide the business with greater capacity, greater speed and the ability to eliminate human error that can prove so costly.”

He added: “It will also give us improved inkjet marking capability when it comes to quality, fonts and different sizes.”

Record sales wasn’t the only thing PP Control & Automation was celebrating in 2023, with apprentice Sophie Young and Chief Executive Tony Hague securing a string of awards for their personal performances throughout the year.

The latter is excited about the future, especially now that global supply chains have begun to settle and lead times on materials have started to reduce, giving the company greater stability to plan for growth.

Exciting new opportunities in clean energy and the circular economy are at the top of the ‘potentials’ list, along with the launch of a new service that will foster innovation and encourage commercialisation in the UK.

Mr Hague said: “Despite all the pressures we’ve faced, the country has remained unbelievably resilient and there’s a real desire to buy British.

“We must capitalise on this by working together to bring manufacturing back home through design, innovation and by adding value. These are our strengths and now is the time to make the most of them.

“At PP C&A we have already started to benefit by working with international customers to help them launch new technologies in green energy, as well as developing a whole host of new innovations that will hopefully accelerate the move to cleaner transport.”

He concluded: “Two major international countries for us in 2024 will be the Netherlands and Denmark – I can see real growth potential in these territories.”

PP Control & Automation is also a proud member of the Manufacturing Assembly Network, a unique collective of six sub-contract manufacturers and a special engineering design agency.