Business grows with Proform

For Richard Hart, coming home to set up his own interior joinery business back in February 2020 was a dream come true. Having travelled to both England and Australia to learn his trade he set up shop in Tarras, not far from Wanaka, as HBH Joinery Ltd.

From a small but workable factory Richard and his staff of three have steadily grown their reputation for customised kitchens, vanities and wardrobes. “We have steadily seen an increase in work despite Covid and last year I decided we needed to improve our production level to meet demand.” comments Richard. The factory is some 230m2 on a long narrow site making workspace a premium. “I had seen various CNC machines in action and in particular I had liked the Proform ATC25/13R from Proform CNC Ltd, as it had a small footprint that suited our factory yet could optimise the cutting of a 1220mm by 2440mm sheet. It was a well priced, robust, gantry style machine that had the features we were looking for, including the userfriendly Windows 10 operating software and especially the twelve position rotary automatic tool changer which has proved to be a real time saver.” The machine was installed and commissioned back in March this year. “The service has been unreal: Proform’s Technician Aidan, did a really professional install followed by some training which saw us up and running in no time flat.” recalls Richard.

In the months that have followed, Richard and his team noticed an increase in work. “We found with the machine were able to do a lot of curved work, something that happens a lot in kitchens these days. Along with Enroute software on the machine we use Mozaik 3D drawing programme which is basically a Cabinet Vision product from the USA. Funnily enough, thinking that the machine would also mean not needing to employ more staff, turned out I had to get another staff member just to handle the increase in work we were getting!” The machine gets sporadic heavy use. When they have the work and the pressure is on it can be running eight hours a day for days on end. A nice extra was the team from Proform also installed the dust extraction system for use with the machine.

“The shift to CNC has proved a winner both in terms of increased production but also in improving the offer we can make to our clientele: a great product made on time for the right price.” Things are running well down Tarras way...

For more information contact Richard Hart at HBH Joinery Ltd on 027 347 4740 Email Richard@ hbhjoinery.co.nz or visit www. hbhjoinery.co.nz