Ultimate Finance helps aluminium spinning company diversify to beat overseas competition
Birmingham-based aluminium spinning company, Cliveland Spinning has found additional success by thinking laterally to beat the competition from both China and India, with help from SME funder, Ultimate Finance.
With 50 years of personnel experience, Cliveland Spinning is a leading manufacturer of quality spun components with an emphasis on high precision reflectors and all forms of lighting products.
However cheaper imports were beginning to affect the business so it decided to diversify by producing aluminium planters and grave vases.
It now has contracts with some of the key distributors of memorial products and this part of the business currently represents 25% of the turnover.
To help fund the rapidly increasing demand for the new products, Ultimate Finance has provided the company with a £70k invoice finance facility.
Managing director of Cliveland Spinning, Andrew Sale, who started the business 10 years ago, is delighted with the demand for the new products.
Andrew said:
“The competition to British manufacturing from China and, more recently, India has been well documented. We therefore needed to put provisions in place and look at different products we could create using our existing machinery and skills.
“Initially we created aluminium planters in a range of attractive colours. This idea then extended into monumental vases which are weatherproof, less expensive to manufacture than stone, and lighter to transport.
“Demand has been high since the day we introduced them, which put quite a strain on the cash flow, as we needed to buy increasing amounts of aluminium but we were having to wait up to 90 days to be paid by our customers.
“Ultimate Finance was quick to see the potential and grant us an increased facility to help us meet demand.”
Pleased to help, Lesley Mouncher from Ultimate Finance, said:
“As a country we need to support British manufacturing against tough competition from overseas.
“Cliveland Spinning is a great example of forward thinking and innovation that has resulted in a product extension which has dramatically increased turnover and reduced its total reliance on lighting products.”
Photo caption: Lesley Mouncher, Ultimate Finance and Andrew Sale, Cliveland Spinning
