QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
JUNE ISSUE 2016
Head Office News: We’ve had the pleasure of welcoming a new member to the team this month, Stephanie Higgins. She has joined us at head office to work with Tony supporting consolidation of group accounts. Pexion have decided that its time for a fresh start and what better way to do so than relocating? We’ve moved to a characteristic renovated barn in the centre of Whittle-le-Woods. It’s open plan and gives us the option to expand into the connecting side for additional training, conference and office space. From it’s structurial design to its bold decor it has the exact look we wanted for a head quarters facility. It is situated across from a well known Golf resort and Spa Hotel, which is ideal for when hosting corporate gatherings and its also just minutes away from the nearest motorway connections. It’s a building that shows diversity yet practicabilty. It now portrays the personality and image of The Pexion Group and its leadership team.
Race For Life 2016 Group Marketing Manager, Hannah Ashworth signed up to Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life this year. The event consisted of a 10k run which took place on Sunday 19th June around Avenham Park, Preston. Hannah crossed the finishing line with a time of 57 minutes and a member of her group actually won the race with a winning time of 52 minutes. A total of £1,900 was raised by Hannah and her friends. Well done on this achievement Hannah!
PAGE 2 | HK HOLDINGS
HK3D FORMS ALLIANCE WITH RICOH EUROPE HK3D Solutions..
Steve Wilcox’s and his team at HK3D have signed a Pan European agreement with Ricoh Europe (one the worlds largest 2D printing manufacturers), for the supply of Professional and Production 3D printing machines. This is a result of complex negotiations that have been taking place for nearly 6 months; the agreement was finally signed on Friday the 20th June. Ricoh will be utilising their 5,000 sales engineers across Europe, and promoting the technology to their current customer base, which is in excess of 15,000 companies across Europe. This will hopefully expand the HK3D reach and speed up the company’s growth prospects. To assist in this growth and ensure we achieve market leading service levels, Steve has appointed Geoff Kelly as the Channel Manager for HK3D, Geoff will be instrumental in getting this relationship up and running and delivering success for both companies. Regular updates on the progress will be delivered from time to time in the upcoming newsletters. Steven Wilcox, HK3D Managing Director.
PAGE 3 | HK HOLDINGS
A NEW ADDITION TO HK3D Geoff Kelly, newcomer at HK Holdings joined the group earlier this month as Distribution Channel Manager. We are pleased to welcome Geoff into the business and we look forward to his future success. Below is a brief introduction from Geoff himself. Geoff commented, “I was very excited when the opportunity came along to join HK 3D Solutions. The 3D printing industry is expanding rapidly with new applications coming along all the time. In fact it is my ideal job, being a perfect blend of materials science, chemistry, manufacturing technology and software”.
Stocked For Success
ProJet MJP 2500 Event
Recently introduced Projet® MJP 2500 3D Printer is a game changer in the 3D multijet printing industry.
On Thursday 28th April 2016 Isodo3d and HK3D launched the very latest 3D Systems ProJet MJP 2500 at the Ageas Bowl, Southampton.
To ensure the business can satisfy high demand from the UK market place, HK3D Solutions has taken the strategic decision to commit to stocking a number of these machines in stock in the Rugby facility.
The ProJet® MJP 2500 3D Printer is the newest addition to the company’s MultiJet Printing (MJP) Range. Designed from the ground up to deliver a productive, in-office 3D printing solution, it improves and accelerates today’s engineering workflow, the ProJet MJP 2500 Series offers simple, clean operation, and easy post-processing at an affordable price.
The investment represents £150,000 and we expect these machines to be sold in a very short period of time.
HK3D had great interest from the event with around 60 attendees and 6 live opportunities!
PAGE 4 | DRURYS ENGINEERING
Investment for Future Expansion As part of the continued investment in equipment and infrastructure of Drurys Engineering the decision was taken by the board to support Paul Addis, Managing Director in investing £250,000 in a new Nakamura WT-150II. It is the latest high speed, high rigidity and compact multi-tasking turn-mill machine on the market and its arrival will further enhance our existing range of machine tools. This investment will allow Drurys to consolidate existing technologies and bring new competences to the business. Paul commented, “We are very pleased to have acquired this machine and believe the technological advancement will be a future game changer for Drurys”.
A NEW BEGINNING.. Earier in the year Drurys said farewell to Tony Laing, he decided to take retirement after 9 years of service. We held a party for Tony at the Letchworth Hall Hotel which took place on Saturday 14th may to celebrate his service with us. We would like to congratulate Tony and wish him a happy and healthy retirement. He will be sadly missed.
20 YEARS AND COUNTING We would like to congratulate Ryan Heath on reaching his 20th anniversary at Drurys Engineering. Well done Ryan on achieving this milestone from everybody across the group.
PAGE 5 | PARAGON PRECISION
MAY - OUR BEST MONTH YET! Order intake hit a record high at ÂŁ380,000 for the month of May from Paragons loyal customer base, securing production for the next two months and bringing Paragon closer to its first half year budget. In addition, the business has a healthy pipeline and future opportunities which it hopes to secure in the second half of the year.
An Intra-Company Opportunity The value of being part of a group was confirmed early on in the relationship for Paragon when in late 2013 an opportunity was highlighted for the manufacture of parts for GKN Aerospace. GKN Aerospace, already a major customer of Drurys Engineering for machined components, were looking for a new supplier of fabricated sheet metal parts. Although Paragon are approved to ISO9001 the necessary AS9100 was not in place, however the customer agreed to Drurys managing the project and approvals. The project involved the manufacture of cockpit window cleat surrounds for Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft , the windows being assembled at GKN Kings Norton. Initial discussions centred around the method of manufacture and highlighted to Paragon that a re-think in the way the components were to be manufactured would offer benefits in quality and price, both of which were critical objectives for GKN. For the Boeing 737 parts new press tooling for Paragons large hydraulic press was developed in conjunction with Paragon Toolmaking (now part of The Pexion group) with a delivery timescale of four months. The Airbus A320 components required a small press tool to be developed along with a new method of manufacture utilising in-house designed welding fixtures and the creation of a separate welding bay within the Paragon factory to eliminate any chance of contamination during the welding process. The total up-front investment exceeded ÂŁ60k. Delivery of production batches of components for both aircraft commenced in July 2014 with final inspection and shipment to GKN being undertaken by Drurys. Production continues to the present day with additional components being brought on-line and new items under discussion.
PAGE 6 | PARAGON TOOLMAKING
STRENGTHENING THE TEAM Paragon Tooling have recruited a new Technical Sales Engineer, Andy Hirst. He joined the business in April 2016 and has a successful track record in the tooling manufacturing industry having worked for associated suppliers for over 20 years. Andy has had a working relationship with Paragon Tooling for a number of years, it was an obvious appointment when he became available and he will now further enhance the competences and capabilities of Paragon Tooling. Andy will be developing a select number of existing customers and building new customer relationships strengthening the customer data base of the business.
FOURTY SEVEN YEARS? Paragon Toolmaking are celebrating 47 years in business this month! Martyn Wear, Managing Director has given the following comments following this anniversary, “After a slow start to the beginning of the year business has picked up dramatically by virtue of winning significant repeat business from an existing customer. With the help of everyone at Paragon Toolmaking we hope to build on this and expand our position in the market�.
NEW APPRENTICES We would like to welcome our new apprentices, Gregor and Sam, who join the company after completing 32 weeks off site further education and basic skills training. We wish them every success as they progress in the business.
PAGE 7 | PREMIER DEEP HOLE DRILLING
NEW AND IMPROVED!
Premier Deep Hole Drilling website set to launch in July! After joining the group at the end of 2015 the decision was made by management to tie in Premier with the rest of the groups branding by rebuilding the company website. In July you will see the launch of Premier’s brand new website for 2016. Now with improved functionality, design and navigation we hope to provide a better user experience. The new site will be found at the current url next month: http://www.premier-drilling.co.uk/. Key features include: • • • •
Responsiveness across devices Clear navigation Updated logo to meet group brand guidelines And a theme that is standard across the group.
In the coming months, the group hope to continue improving the site so that it best serves how we communicate with you by continually expanding online content to keep you updated with the latest information. Feedback.. We are keen to receive your feedback, if you think we could improve certain areas of the site please get in touch with the Marketing Department. As Paragon Toolmaking Co Ltd are the latest acquisition they will be the next company to be rebranded to correspond with the existing companies in Pexion. Their website, logo and stationery will be redesigned and launched
EXECUTIVE BOARD COMMENTS
“Welcome to the Pexion quarterly newsletter. As you are no doubt aware there have been some strategic changes within Pexion Group over the last few of months. We have sold Beldam Crossley to change the ownership, reduce debt and ensure growth monies are available for our next phase of strategic development. These changes have given the group a strong foundation on which to build and we plan to do just that in the coming months and years. Our strategy will see Pexion continue to acquire engineering based UK businesses which will increase the groups competence, scale or product portfolio in our chosen markets. We will focus on markets that demonstrate longevity within the British economy. In addition to acquisitional growth driven from head office, it is imperative that all existing group businesses perform in their own right.
ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE
The
Pexion Group
In terms of the year to date performance the group is below budget for sales and profit, which has been affected by a slow start to the year from HK Holdings, due in main to timing issues associated with changing their 3D Printer prime, this is expected to improve and return to Budget performance in the second half of the year. Premier Deep Hole Drilling and Paragon Tool Making have over performed against Budget which has helped bridge this gap. With the addition of further acquisitions, some of which are quite close to completion, we expect the group to outperform the Budget in the remainder of 2016. Regular updates of new acquisitions will be communicated throughout the rest of this year.� - Dave Brindle CEO