Lombard – Manthorpe Engineering Case Study
Manthorpe Engineering Limited, a member of the privately owned Manthorpe Group of companies was founded in 1978 and is based at Ripley in Derbyshire. Around 120 employees share the responsibility for the design, programming and manufacture of precision components for the medical, nuclear, tobacco and process plant, but above all the aerospace, power generation and defence industries. The company now has a worldwide reputation for supplying specialist-engineering services with its technical expertise and manufacturing capability.
Working in a wide variety of materials including Aluminium, Carbon Steel alloys, Stainless Steel and the exotic alloys such as Nimonic, Inconel, Waspalloy, Hastelloy and Titanium, Manthorpe is able to tackle the manufacture of the most demanding and complex components utilising its high quality machine tools supported by a Unigraphics NX5 CAD/CAM design and modelling package.
The need for this advanced technology is paramount to the success of the company in maintaining its position as a high quality supplier of difficult to manufacture, performance critical components for the leading gas turbine OEM’s.
Manthorpe also has a strong brand reputation for the manufacture of high integrity fabrications for the Power Generation, Process Plant and Engine test facilities. Accreditation gained by the firm includes ISO 9001, AS/EN9100, BS EN 287 and 288, ASME IX and AWS The company has been through a rigorous supplier approval process to gain accreditation and Tier 1 supplier status with Rolls Royce plc. Their relationship is encapsulated by various 3 year, 5- year and ‘Life of type’ contracts to supply engine casings to a number of civil, military and energy programs.
Initial design is undertaken with state of the art Unigraphics CAD modelling software all of which then links to numerical control programming, tool path and machine simulation and post processing.
To support their continued growth and the need to remain competitive, the company has recently installed a DMU 340 multi tasking machine manufactured by DMG of Germany. It is a first of its kind in the UK costing over £1.25m and is a significant investment by the company to further increase production capacity and capability in the sectors they operate within.
It is a very large 3.4m bed mill-turn machine, which is equipped with on-board probing features to allow machining and inspection of high value components. The mill-turn centre combines two technologies in a single machine allowing workpieces weighing up to 7 tonnes to be machined using five axes simultaneously in a single set-up.
Lombard, working in conjunction with their colleagues from RBS Corporate Banking in Nottingham were selected by Manthorpe to provide funding for the investment. The terms of the agreement have been designed to benefit the balance sheet of the company and position them in an advantageous position to compete in their marketplace, whilst utilising the benefits from their cash flow to support their day to day operations without tying up their reserves in the purchase of the asset.
Andrew Smith, Financial Controller for the Manthorpe Group commented:
"The new machine is a major investment for the company as it significantly enhances our production capacity and allows us to compete more aggressively in our chosen markets for contract opportunities. The ability to use the machine without adversely affecting our capital reserves is a financial benefit to the operation of the company, as it allows us to divert company funds as and when they are needed, whilst at the same time strengthening the balance sheet and asset base of the company. I am grateful to the support Dilip Nathwani and the team at Lombard has provided on the machine investment, and we recognise fundamentally the benefits of using asset finance as the financing method in this instance."
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For further information please contact
Andrew Cameron-Smith
Senior Media Manager, The Royal Bank of Scotland
Tel: + 44 (0) 7796 336292
Email: andrew.cameron-smith@rbs.co.uk
Notes to Editors
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group ("RBS Group") is one of the world's leading financial services companies. For the past four years RBS has consistently ranked in the top 10 global banks. In 2005, RBS Group posted total income of £25.6 billion and operating profit before tax, goodwill amortisation and integration costs of £8.2 billion. Cost:income ratio, a key measure of efficiency, was 41.8 per cent and total assets at 31 December 2005 stood at £776.8 billion. RBS Group operates in Europe, the US and Asia Pacific serving more than 36 million customers worldwide and employing more than 140,000 people. In addition to the provision of a full range of banking services under The Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest brands, RBS Group also includes Citizens Financial Group, Ulster Bank, Coutts Group, Direct Line and Churchill.
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