Members’ News
29 Nov 2018
HydraForce celebrates 30 years of manufacturing in Birmingham UK
Aston based business and BFPA member, HydraForce Hydraulics Ltd, celebrated its thirtieth anniversary of trading in the UK last month, with an event at Birmingham’s Millennium Point.
HydraForce, manufacturer of hydraulic valves and manifold systems, bought its employees together with families and friends, on Saturday 27th October 2018 for a Celebration Party. Over 800 people attended the event, which included family activities ranging from face painting and fairground fun to Segways and Street Food vendors.
Tony Casale, Vice President of HydraForce Inc (the parent company of HydraForce Ltd, based in Chicago, Illinois) flew in to attend the party and was one of the key speakers at the event: “Here at HydraForce we see our employees as part of our family and the success of the business is due to the efforts and commitment of our staff. The facility in Birmingham is the second largest company in the HydraForce group and I want to say a personal thank you to the UK Leadership team and the employees here in England for their continued support and congratulate them on their success”
Tony Brown, Managing Director of HydraForce Ltd in Birmingham, echoed Tony Casale’s sentiments when he told the audience: “We are proud to be an employer here in Birmingham and are pleased to say that we are one of the biggest in the Aston area. This year alone we have created more than 100 jobs and we are looking forward to our continued success as we approach the end of this incredible year where we anticipate sales exceeding £110m”
The speeches were followed by a special performance by local group, Aston Performing Arts Academy, who were chosen as part of the business’ commitment to supporting the local community.
Opportunity for a new distributorship
New BFPA member AKG UK Ltd are actively seeking distributors throughout the UK and Ireland to further promote its product ranges. The company would provide the necessary tools and training with back-up support from its Sales and Design team based in South Wales, UK.
If you are interested in finding out more, please visit their website www.akg-uk.co.uk or contact Lee Ackerman on 01443 678 055.
Click – Watch – Do it with automation video support from Festo
Optimising productivity and minimising downtime are key to maximising efficiency. Underestimating how long a maintenance task will take, or the degree of difficulty involved – even something as simple as having all the tools you need for the task in hand – has a major impact. Industrial automation specialist Festo has developed an online library of free video support tutorials to help engineers working with their electric and pneumatic automation technology tackle common service and maintenance tasks with confidence.
The online tutorial resource is being added to all the time, based on questions commonly raised with the Festo technical hotline team. A subscription to the YouTube channel “Festo Service” informs you about newly uploaded video tutorial. Take a look and subscribe to the channel at: www.youtube.com/FestoService
Fairway Hydraulics Ltd moves to new premises
BFPDA member Fairway Hydraulics Ltd have moved into new premises in Worcestershire. Their new address is:
Fairway Hydraulics Ltd, Plot 2, Zone 5, Rushock Trading Estate, Rushock, Worcestershire WR9 0NR.
Their telephone number remains the same: 01905 457519
The Edmonton branch of Norton Hydraulics Ltd is moving to St Albans
BFPDA member Norton Hydraulics Ltd is relocating. The factory will be closed for business from 5pm on Friday 14 December 2018 and reopening on Monday 7 January 2019 at:
Unit 27, North Orbital Commercial Park, Napsbury Lane, St Albans, Hertfordshire AL1 1XB (5 minutes from J22 M25)
Their telephone number will remain the same: 0208 807 4295
http://www.norton-hydraulics.co.uk/
HANSA-FLEX announced the acquisition of Plant Hoses Limited at the end of May 2018, and we are delighted that the company will continue to be a member of the BFPDA. With 420 subsidiaries and 320 FLEXXPRESS service vehicles, HANSA-FLEX has become Europe’s leading company for all areas of hydraulics. It is the breadth and depth of products and services available that make the company such a valued partner today.
In a statement the new Branch Manager Martin Murray commented: “We are delighted to avail of this opportunity, a company of Plant Hoses history, with similar values to that of our own, together with HANSA-FLEX will provide a range of many new services, benefits and opportunities to our customers, employees and suppliers in Northern Ireland.”
www.hansa-flex.com/en/index.html
Do you have a company news story we could feature?
BFPA would like to help publicise our BFPA and BFPDA members’ company news (free of charge to members) in our newsletter and / or on our website news page and want to feature more news stories from our BFPA and BFPDA members. Each news item will be set alongside a photo / logo / image (which you would ideally supply) and archived by date. We may also be able to publish on our news pages or send out to a wider media list as well on your behalf.
We would love to hear from you if you have any suitable UK fluid power industry news stories such as:
- Senior staff appointments
- New buildings being opened
- Awards being won / presented
- New industry sales partners announced
- New acquisitions / alliances etc.
- Innovative or unusual projects or case studies
Please send any news items to Sarah Gardner sarah@bfpa.co.uk – we look forward to hearing from you soon!