A Black Country manufacturer is flying high after securing a number of contracts in the aerospace industry at a time when it has invested £1.1 million in state-of-the-art machinery.

Hockley Pattern & Tool Co Ltd moved to a new 20000 sq ft base in Lodgefield Road, Halesowen, last November, at a time when business has taken off, including a £1.1 million turnover recorded in the last three months.

The company, run by Jim Williams, 62, and sons Neil, 37, and Gareth, 34, relocated to Halesowen from Church Lane, West Bromwich, to double its size in the process and hired 14 new employees to help secure its position in the aerospace sector. The new 3 and 5 Axis equipment includes a MTE CNC milling machine and has been part-funded by a £195,000 SFIE (Selective Finance For Investment for England) grant from regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.

Phil Langford, Grants Case Officer at AWM, said: “One of AWM’s key priorities is to make sure such companies have access to appropriate finance for growth and SFIE funding can often be the last piece in the financial jigsaw to trigger capital expenditure that leads to long-term improvements in productivity, skills and employment.

“We recognise the value of companies such as Hockley Pattern and Tool Company to the overall prosperity of the region, but equally understand the increasing pressures to compete in a global knowledge-based economy where the latest in equipment and a highly skilled workforce are key to maintaining a competitive edge.

“The company is one of a select band of tool making companies that remain in the West Midlands and the UK as a whole. It employs a number of individuals with good engineering skills who have the ability to produce tooling to manufacture high quality components from drawings and data on a disc.”

Hockley Pattern and Tool was founded by Jim Williams in 1979 in the garage of his home. He built the company up to its present lofty status.

Mr Williams said: “The factory move was the result of a determination to sell current core expertise to new customers in an expanding aerospace industry. The rapid conversion from aluminium to carbon fibre composite as the leading airframe material has triggered a new growth opportunity where Hockley’s core automotive pattern making skills can be refined and reused, at a time when the automotive tooling sector is in decline.

“Our success with BAE Systems supplying tooling manufactured using casting techniques has enabled our business to supply tools in far less time than traditional ‘machined from billet’ methods and at far less cost through reduction in material consumption and machining times.”

Hockley Pattern and Tool has set out to take full advantage of the whole range of tooling required to mould and trim composite parts and has set up an exclusive cooperation agreement with as major US tooling company to support the very biggest Invar Tools.

The 41 employee firm has the expertise to work from a variety of input media such as hard copy drawings, CAD surface and solid models or from existing physical models or patterns. Other prestigious companies include Airbus, GKN Aerospace and Bombardier, while jigs and fixtures have been made for some of the world’s best known car marques such as Aston Martin, BMW and Land Rover.

It is forecasting that by 2010 sales will be at £3,500,000 – an increase of 75 per cent over two years, and returning a net profit of around £400,000. This prediction is based on the boom within the aerospace industry continuing, based on discussions with customers and reports from market intelligence provider Mintel. In addition another 14 jobs are due to be created by 2010.

The project is located within the South Black Country and West Birmingham Regeneration Zone.

SFIE is a form of financial assistance available to businesses located in Assisted Areas in the UK for investment in capital expenditure and is run by AWM in the West Midlands. It is normally given in a grant paid in instalments based on capital expenditure and job creation targets being met. Funding ranges from £10,000 to £2 million.

SFIE grants are part of a comprehensive range of regional finance initiatives co-ordinated by AWM. For more information visit www.westmidlandsfinance.com