Coventry, West Midlands, England - Bystronic UK managing director David Larcombe says that 2014 was the company's best-ever year with order intake nearly £47 million ($69 million), up 40 percent from 2013. That year and the previous two all saw increases between 20 and 25 percent.
"I think the higher level of sales is down partly to Government initiatives, such as raising the capital allowance to £250,000 [$369,462]," Larcombe says. "It helped to boost our order intake in December to three-times budget, despite only three weeks of trading. Politicians seem to be taking manufacturing far more seriously now and continue to support the private sector with regional growth funding in England, helping to create economic prosperity and employment."
One driver for Bystronic's growth worldwide, and particularly in the UK, has been the phenomenal uptake in fiber laser profiling at the expense of machines powered by CO2 lasers. Sales of the latter practically halved between 2012 and 2014, whereas BySprint Fiber machine sales rocketed in the UK from 15 to 54.
"We have had to be careful to match this success with the deployment of enough applications and service engineers to look after both our existing and new customers," Larcombe explains. "We have recruited several new members of staff in these areas recently and are also fortunate to have the resources of the Swiss parent company at our disposal when needed. All of our customers seem to be busy at the moment, both OEMs and subcontractors, and we are hoping this continues throughout 2015."