Showing its metal
Offering fabricators savings of up to £200,000 a year, steel reinforcement specialist Anglo has completed a major restructure and is investing for the future.
There is quiet logic to David Evans’ journey within Anglo. Now its managing director, he joined the company in 2020 as finance director, appointed to oversee the rolled steel specialist’s growth under its then investor partner, Octopus Investments.
Prior to joining the Anglo team, he worked as a research scientist with a background in metals and electrochemistry, and as a restructuring advisor at multi-national professional services giant, Ernst & Young.
This has provided a foundation for his role at the top of Anglo, steering the company through the 2021 acquisition by the global metals engineering giant, the Amari Metals Engineering Group, and setting the company on a new course.
It has included a multi-million-pound restructuring of the business and major investment programme, including new machinery and accreditations, each focused on delivering enhanced product quality and a more flexible service to its customers across markets.
The UK’s most advanced roll forming line
The product of a £1million investment in its own-right, this includes its new double-sided, roll-forming line.
“It’s the best in British manufacturing technology,” David says. “What’s unique about it is that it’s a double-sided production line, which means that we no longer have tooling downtime and significant productivity gains.
“As we’re tooling up one part of the machine, the other side can be running. And when that side is completed, we can then be rolling the next product on the other side of the machine within about 10 minutes.
“It’s the leading roll forming technology in Britain, and with 24 forming stations we can roll complex sections – in gauges ranging from about 0.8mm, and everything in between up to 2mm in very intricate designs.”
The line also rolls directly from the coil, punching and cutting ‘on-the-fly’ as part of a continuous process, delivering significant efficiency gains, while investment in dedicated toolsets for each product brings increased precision to manufacture.
“What that gives us is consistency from batch to batch,” David continues, “so we can be certain that every section we’re rolling is perfect.”
“So, there’s very little variation and very little setup time, delivering efficiency gains which we pass directly onto the customer. The other advantage of it is its speed.”
Full traceability on products
Anglo has also implemented a major restructuring process, introducing a new operational team and going through an extensive accreditation process.
Galvanised steel coatings used can range from Z140 to Z275 depending on the application of the product. David argues that traceability against this is an increasingly important part of Anglo’s offer so that customers can have complete confidence in the products they order.
“Customers need full traceability right through the production cycle,” David continues. “We source our steel in the UK and can provide mill certificates against each product that we manufacture.
“We can guarantee them that the on product they order, exceptional quality is absolutely what they get.
“We test product all the way through the production cycle and we will certify that product to the customer.
“We’re also even going as far as supplying digital galv thickness meters to customers on a free loan basis so that they can actually test the product for themselves and have complete confidence.”
Continuing investment
Anglo has also committed to a programme of continuing investment with further spend and increasing automation of its manufacturing facility scheduled for later in this year.
David continues: “Many UK businesses have had a sluggish start to 2024 and it’s very difficult to say how the rest of the year is going to pan out because it’s subject to so many other external factors, whether they’re domestic or global.
“My feeling is that with inflation rates trending downwards we are going to have a period of stability but I think that significant market recovery is probably some way off just because of uncertainties and ongoing geopolitical tensions around the globe.
“Nevertheless, we will continue to invest heavily in product quality, manufacturing technology and increasing our production efficiency, and it’s our customers who will see the benefit of this.
“More generally, companies should be using this time to look at their raw material procurement and look for opportunities to save money without compromising on quality.
“We’re to help window and door companies to do that.”
