New Annual Investment Allowance is welcome news for manufacturers

The beginning of 2013 has brought some welcome news from the government for any company involved in manufacturing. Improvements to capital allowances, bank lending, and corporation tax rates, set against the background of a growing manufacturing sector should give us all reasons for good cheer.

In his autumn statement, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced a temporary increase in the annual investment allowance for plant and machinery from £25,000 to £250,000.

Starting on 1 January 2013 and for the next two years, £250,000 worth of investment will qualify for 100% relief. The chancellor said. ‘This capital allowance will cover the total annual investment undertaken by 99% of all the business in Britain. It is a huge boost to all those who run a business, who aspire to grow and expand and create jobs.’

The allowance, introduced in 2008, was reduced from £100,000 to £25,000 from April 2012.
Today’s announcement will be welcomed by many SMEs. Leaders of 14 trade bodies last year wrote to The Sunday Times urging the government to increase capital allowances.

Critics have pointed out that cuts in the main rate of corporation tax have not benefited smaller companies, some of which have been worse off as a result of recent changes to the capital allowances regime. This new allowance should address this problem.

Chris Sanger, head of tax policy at Ernst & Young, said the announcement represented the fourth change in five years:

‘The last government introduced the allowance at £50,000, increasing it to £100,000 and it was cut by this government to £25,000 from April 2012. Whilst such rapid changes could look incoherent, these incentives are clearly linked to the state of the economy and can accelerate investment,’ he said.

The introduction of the 100% Annual Investment Allowance, together with April’s long awaited reduction in corporation tax will make the UK the most favourable regime in the EU for manufacturers and sub-contractors. It provides the incentives that are needed to invest for expansion and to seek new market opportunities.

Another measure that should be a great help to SMEs in 2013 is the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS). Banks and building societies can borrow in the FLS at cheaper rates, for periods of up to four years.

The Scheme delivers credit easing to the whole economy, and has strong incentives for banks and building societies to increase lending to UK businesses. Those that lend more, can borrow more in the FLS, and can do so at lower cost than those that scale back lending.

For companies in the Surface Finishing industry, all of this will come as welcome news. Many SMEs have been reluctant to invest in plant and machinery during the recession. This is either because of shortage of demand or uncertainty about the long term prospects for growth.

The widespread availability of good value redundant finishing plant and machinery, together with the increased capital allowance, means that companies’ budgets can be made to go much further.

Many of us, like my family, have been in the surface finishing business for several generations. For us it is not just a way of making a living. We share a passion for a business at which the UK has excelled historically. This more favourable environment should give all of us the incentive to do even better in 2013.

Electroplating. Past, present and future.

The origins of electroplating go back to the early 19th century, and have been variously attributed to Michael Faraday, Luigi Brugnatelli and Allisandro Volta (after whom the the electric unit ‘volt’ was named). However, it was the Elkington Brothers of Birmingham that submitted the first viable patent for gold and silver plating in 1840. This development was rapidly followed with processes for plating in bright nickel, brass, tin and zinc. As with much of the world’s manufacturing technologies, electroplating was founded in the white heat of the Victorian industrial revolution.

The explosion of the automotive and aeronautical industries of the early 20th century, as well as those serving the construction industry, saw another surge in electroplating processes, particularly in the use of chrome plating on steel.

However, things did not radically change for over 100 years. It was the growth of the electronics industries in the 1940s, accelerated by the technological and communications demands of World War 2 that saw new chemicals, pre-treatments, cleaning systems, acid bath preparations and more accurate DC power supplies come into force.

This barrel plating plant was relocated from the UK to a large automotive sub-contract electroplating company in Durban, South Africa.

Change driven by legislation

Whilst technology and the demands for new consumer products have always been the main drivers of electroplating advances, from the 1970s onwards environmental and health & safety practices have had increasing influences. Legislation both at home and overseas governs waste water and chemical disposal, water recycling, dust and fume extraction and energy efficiency to name just a few. These regulations impose challenges on electroplating companies to maintain high standards of product quality, whilst at the same time being aware of potential harm to the environment and the health and safety of employees.

In this respect, we are not talking about some vague notion of how to prevent global warming. The dangers inherent in allowing toxic chemicals into public water systems were illustrated in a dramatic way by the year 2000 film ‘Erin Brockovich’, starring Julia Roberts and Albert Finney, which was based on a true story. The film highlighted the dangers of not properly controlling the safe disposal of hexavalent chrome (CR6) as a passivation agent. Similar issues have recently emerged in relation to the use of cadmium in the aerospace industry.

Modern electroplating plants are light years away from the dirty, smelly, polluting monstrosities of yesteryear. As well as being environmentally sound and energy efficient, they incorporate a number of improvements in order to achieve a higher quality of finished result. New practices enable greater plating speed, better ‘throwing’ power (the ability to produce a more uniform distribution of metal on products of irregular shapes), as well as a far greater variety of robust and decorative plating finishes.

This precious metal plating plant was relocated within the UK and reconfigured for zinc plating

New materials and processes

In addition, the electroplating of materials such as platinum, osmium and ruthenium are now used widely in electronics for connectors, circuit boards, contacts etc. Keeping up with the ever more demanding needs of the electronics, computing, aerospace and automotive industries is what is driving through improvements to electroplating worldwide, creating ever more sophisticated materials and processes.

In the UK, a particular growth area for electroplating is in the medical prosthetics sector. Hip, knee and whole limb replacements are heavily dependent on the precision surface finishing of metals such as titanium, platinum and rhodium.

The development of more sophisticated and specialised electroplating processes for niche industries has brought about a major change in the structure of companies supplying the industry. Until the 1980s, the surface finishing requirements of Britain’s manufacturing and engineering sectors were largely served by electroplating sub-contractors (otherwise known as ‘jobbing shops’) that dominated the industry. The decline of heavy engineering throughout the 1980s and 90s saw a parallel downsizing of electroplating sub-contractors, with many disappearing altogether.

As the UK economy has moved towards more high end and specialised manufacturing, such as the hugely successful Formula One industry, many bespoke and confidential metal coating processes have moved in-house. Today’s electroplating operations are more likely to feature clean room environments populated by people in white coats, with correspondingly safe and efficient working practices.

Modern plants include computer controlled automation of product transportation, chemical dosing, pre-treatments and other critical process stages. PLC controls are replacing manual systems and modern rectifiers are delivering far more reliable current densities to ensure consistent results.

This general purpose plating plant was relocated from Ireland to Pakistan to be used by a large fasteners manufacturer

Recycling of redundant plant and machinery

The restructuring of the industry has created a large number of redundant electroplating plants and ancillary equipment that need to be put to good use. Just as legislation requires the safe recycling of chemicals, waste water etc., there is also a duty of care to the environment in relation to the de-commissioning and recycling of complete process plants. 

Developing countries such as India, Brazil, South Africa and Turkey are emerging markets for recycled electroplating plants. At Riley Surface World, we are seeing an increased demand for used process plants both at home and overseas.

A good example is this fully automated barrel acid zinc plating plant (pictured) that was de-commissioned in the UK, shipped to Durban, South Africa and re-assembled there for inline production. The client, one of South Africa’s largest plating specialists, enjoyed the benefits of a modern, efficient European plant at a fraction of the cost of having it built locally from scratch.

Another recent development is the adaptation of used electroplating plants for different applications within the UK. Wet treatment lines are relatively easy to re-design and re-configure, sometimes with the introduction of transportation, heating and PLC controls to an outdated manual plant. 

There are two good examples of this. Firstly, a precious metal plating plant (pictured) which was sold, relocated and converted to zinc plating for a global remanufacturer of automotive parts in a different part of the country. Secondly, we assisted an Irish company, by auction, to exit electroplating and to sell and relocate two modern electroplating plants (pictured) to a large manufacturer of fasteners and die castings for the automotive industry in Pakistan.

Even effluent treatment plants can be subjected to the resale and recycle process. Our company recently carried out the sale of a substantial K-Pack dissolved air flotation facility (pictured) from the paper industry to the oil industry in the UK.

There has been much speculation in recent times about paint and powder coating overtaking electroplating as the metal coating process of choice for many companies. Whilst this may be viable for lots of products, there is no substitute for the fine layers of coating and the range of quality finishes that electroplating can achieve. As a new industrial revolution takes shape in the re-balancing of the UK economy back towards manufacturing and exporting, electroplating is once again coming into its own, in ways which the Elkington brothers could hardly have predicted.

    

            

Advanced Engineering delivers all round success at NEC

Riley Surface World has just completed its first participation in the Advanced Engineering exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham, UK. This is an annual event covering the sectors of Aero, Automotive and Composites Engineering, all of which are industries where the UK currently excels.

Both exhibitor and visitor attendance numbers were impressive and there was a general buzz of activity and air of optimism around the hall. The organisers can take great credit for working closely with government agencies and trade associations to create networking events. During these forums, component suppliers and sub-contractors were able to network with and understand the requirements of large manufacturers such as Jaguar Land Rover and UTC Aerospace.

This year, the exhibition made a special effort to attract companies from the surface engineering sector and this certainly paid off, with market leaders such as Wheelabrator, Guyson, Carbolite and Turbex all in attendance, as well as many of the chemical producers and suppliers. Britain’s reputation of engineering excellence depends on many specialist skills and processes, with surface finishing being a prominent contributor to making us a world-class manufacturing nation.

From the point of view of Riley Surface World, we felt privileged to be in such exalted company. It also opened up our eyes to a world outside what can sometimes be the rather narrow perspective of our highly specialised industry. Our experience since the turn of the new century is that surface preparation and coating processes have become much more diverse and dispersed across a much wider spectrum of manufacturing industry.

This makes it all the more necessary to engage with events such as Advanced Engineering, reaping the benefits of broader horizons and gaining valuable contacts from companies and organisations that we would not normally meet.

To those that are sceptical about events of this kind, I would simply urge them to give it a try. It is only a 2 day exhibition, so it does not eat into resources as much as 3 or 4 day shows. Modern communications may be very sophisticated, with lots of ways to contact people using social media and the like. However, there is still no substitute for meeting the customer, looking them in the eye and shaking hands on a transaction that is beneficial for both parties.

The exhibition also re-acquainted us with our local Black Country Chamber of Commerce, which is a valuable source of support, both in financial terms and in the level of expertise that they can offer to SMEs.

We have enjoyed great success over the last 10 years by transforming our business from a traditional machinery merchant into a virtual business that is driven by network solutions, and has become further internationalised. None of that would have been possible without the support that our local government agencies, working in conjunction with UKTI, have given us.

Advanced Engineering was a hugely successful event, and as our economy re-balances away from services and the public sector towards manufacturing and exports, it can only go from strength to strength in the future.

Diversity is the key to success in UK manufacturing

Autumn is here, the days are growing shorter, the nights are getting colder and there is a hint of wood smoke in the air.

The glorious late summer of Olympics and Paralympics now seem so long ago. Now, if you believe certain politicians and commentators, it is back to the grindstone of an uphill struggle against a falling economy and failing confidence.

No sooner was the summer over, than everyone from the corner shop owner to the Governor of the Bank of England has been crying doom and gloom and promising another seven years of austerity.

And yet, over a washout summer, with not only Olympics but Queen’s Diamond Jubilee holidays, floods and other distractions, we have been surprised by the robust health of our business.

A major factor driving the upturn in the surface finishing sector is the diversity of companies and applications that are entering the sector every day. The Riley Surface World website accepts daily registrations from companies and individuals expressing interest in our products and services. Here are just a few examples of the activities of those companies that have registered in recent days:

Nautical ropes, electrical switchgear, classic motorbikes, decorative glassware, wood carvings, razor wire, knife sharpeners, brewing, fencing, fire arms, currency, flour milling, metal sculpture, roof tiles, health foods…I could go on. In the forty five years that our company has been trading, there has never been such diversity in the marketplace.

What this tells us, above all, is that there is a re-balancing of the economy from the public to the private sector. This process has actually been building for several years; we are a nation of entrepreneurs that is always bursting with ideas. This is now accelerating with government encouragement.

The transition barely registers on the macro-economic scale, so it will make precious little difference to our industrial output figures or our balance of payments for several years. It is also not without pain, and in that sense Sir Mervyn King is probably right.

The government is pursuing a strategy to grow our major industries, such as automotive, aerospace, life sciences and new technology. The more growth there is for the prime movers, the more this will trickle down to the suppliers of components and services, not least in the surface finishing industry. However, it is the underlying growth in small-scale manufacturing of the kind highlighted earlier which is creating daily opportunities for a company like ours.

One of the side effects of this trend is that we are starting to experience shortages of key items of used process machinery. Examples of this include high temperature ovens, wheel blast machines, aqua blast machines, enclosed vapour degreasing systems and automatic polishing machinery.

In the short term, the slack will be taken up by overseas original equipment manufacturers, with the Chinese inevitably leading the way. What our industry needs is a strategy to encourage UK based building of some of these vital pieces of equipment that are now in growing demand. We also need to look closely at the marketing and distribution, with emphasis on the key message: ‘Made in Britain’.

If we, as an industry, are to take full advantage of this resurgence in niche manufacturing, we must collectively produce a plan to put the infrastructure in place. We are fortunate to have some excellent trade associations in the surface finishing industry. Now is the time for them to prove their worth.

Let's all shout three cheers for the creative industries!

The surface engineering industry occupies a unique position in manufacturing. It exists on the borderline between the certainties of mechanical and chemical engineering and the more nebulous field of product design. It is a hybrid profession, populated by skilled machine operators and those strange creative people, dreaming up ever new product designs and finishes that serve the needs for both product visibility and durability.

The Creative Industries in the UK represent 7.3% of GDP, generate over £60 billion for the economy and employ more than 2 million people. It is a sector in which Great Britain excels, outperforming the USA, Germany and Japan.

It also compares favourably with Financial Services (8.9%) and Manufacturing (11.5%). And in contrast to these two sectors, it hasn’t had to receive a massive bailout and the government doesn’t need to set up Enterprise Zones or award grants to encourage it to flourish.

The UK leads the world in advertising, digital marketing, fashion, computer games, product design and many other activities that loosely fall under the creative umbrella. We export our services and our talent around the world, with the emerging countries doing their best to keep up.

There has been a lot of debate recently about the need for our universities to produce more scientists and engineers, and there is no doubt that we are behind the game in those areas. However, this is not to downgrade the importance of our Art & Design Colleges. Creativity is an elusive concept that is hard to define. Students need to appreciate the finer points of high art in order to hone their skills, even if they are to be used for commercial design.

If you doubt the importance of our Art & Design Colleges, then take a look at China. They are in the process of building no fewer than 1250 of them over the next 5 years. They are conscious of the fact that they cannot persist with a low-value, low-tech economy. Future prosperity will depend as much on the generation of ideas as it will on technological innovation.

In many ways, it is the search for the X Factor without the odious Simon Cowell, and staged for all the right reasons. The Creative Industries do not exist simply in a bubble; they infiltrate and enhance all kinds of industries, providing marketing services, web design, product design, phone apps and many other innovations.

In UK manufacturing, our talented product designers are giving us the cutting edge in all kinds of ways. The iphone and ipad were both designed by a British product designer who had served his time in Art College. Other examples include the Dyson vacuum cleaner, distinctive as much for its quirky appearance as it is for its bagless operation, the Mini and the angle poise lamp.

In the surface finishing industry, talented British designers are colluding with engineers and chemists to make the UK a world leader in this particular field. This applies to special organic colour finishes, decorative finishes and the use of polymers and ceramics for unusual and durable finishes in cars, white goods and thousands of everyday products. In many cases, goods that are manufactured in low-cost countries are shipped here to complete the kind of innovative and high quality finishes that we are famous for.

The Creative Industries are one of the UK’s great success stories. For every Terence Conran or Damien Hirst, there are thousands of excellent and practical designers working in unsung fashion throughout British industry, and we ignore their importance at our peril.

We all have responsibility to produce growth

Following the Queen’s Speech outlining the government’s legislative programme for the new parliament, there has been a great deal of criticism from opposition parties, media commentators and general chatter from the users of Twitter and then like about the need ‘to create more growth.’

While few people would argue that more growth is desirable in these difficult times, what does ‘growth’ really mean and how do you ‘create’ it anyway?

The traditional Keynesian measures consisting of the government stimulating growth by pouring money into large public sector infrastructure projects seem to be out of the question at present. The Olympics has given a massive boost to East London and the feel-good factor should be with us all summer, but this is the exception. In any case, the finance was put in place during the good times, before the banking crisis caused the world economy to fall off a cliff.

In the UK, our economy is operating against a backdrop of public sector cuts, high street closures, tentative bank lending, rising energy prices, rising unemployment and falling living standards. Not exactly the ideal environment for growth creation.

On top of all that, the falling value of the euro may be good news for those of us that are going on holiday to Europe in the next few months, but not such good news for companies that depend on exports to the European market. Meanwhile, the crisis in the Eurozone goes from bad to worse. In this perfect storm, where is the growth?

Well, for starters, maybe growth is the wrong word to be using. Growth implies that the consumer suddenly becomes more confident about future prospects, job security, rising property values, personal credit-worthiness and a whole host of other factors that result in an increase of consumer spending.

The other main implication is that the spending must somehow be fuelled by borrowing, and that it will be on goods, services and properties that are currently in negative growth. In other words, the direct opposite of the current downturn. But isn’t this the thing that got us into trouble in the first place?

If you substitute the word growth with success, you arrive at an entirely different agenda. Success involves successful companies producing new products and services that people want to buy, and will find a way of doing so despite the economic climate.

You are probably thinking, ‘what has all this pontificating got to do with our industry?’ Well I will try to explain. A good example, as outlined in my previous blog, is the growth of paint and powder processes, which are currently out-performing electroplating and demonstrating growth that is lacking in much of industry at the moment.

New technology, whether it be in motor vehicles, aerospace, defence, computing or construction materials, is demanding even more interesting, durable and sustainable kinds of product finishing. Where traditional electroplating processes have been found wanting, new organic coating processes are supplying the need.

This, in turn, is resulting in successful products from successful companies, which are finding new markets in developing countries such as the Middle East and South

East Asia, where recession is not an issue. So we create exports, which create jobs, which create confidence, which creates growth.

There is no easy way out of this scenario. The greatest hope, both for our industry and for the country as a whole, is that we constantly find new solutions to new problems and continue to work hard at what we do best. This may not make growth certain, but certainly more likely.

The Finishing Touch. How paint and powder is re-shaping our world.

My intention in this article is to discuss the market position and potential growth of paint and powder coating processes, coming at it from the perspective of an equipment reseller that is observing the changes in the industry on a day to day basis.

Riley Surface World is in many ways at the sharp end of the surface finishing and coating industry. Because of our role in buying and selling process plant and equipment, we are subject to the changes and dynamics much more than most companies.

When my father started this business in the mid-1960s, the metal finishing industry was dominated by traditional electro-plating or ‘wet finishing’ sub-contract companies and processes, serving the buoyant manufacturing and engineering industries of that time.

For instance, motor vehicles still had a large amount of visible chrome plated components. These processes were administered by people with very specialised skills that had been handed down over generations. They formed a closed shop that practised the dark arts of electroplating, with far fewer restrictions on the use of harmful chemicals and hazardous working practices than there are today.

At that time, the paint and powder coating processes were in their infancy, very much viewed as the poor relation to more superior electro-deposited immersion coating procedures. Britain’s great manufacturers, such as aeroplanes, cars, construction materials and heavy engineering were still firmly wedded to processes such as zinc plating for volume production finishing.

So what are the factors that are driving the paint and powder coating revolution, and how can our industry benefit from them?

Quality and choice

The first major issue must be quality. Paint and powder chemical companies have made huge strides in improving their formulations. Today’s organic finishes provide greater thickness, consistency, hardness, tensile strength, flexibility and corrosion protection properties. Safety is also a major factor, with paint and powder coatings being resistant to such hazards as hydrogen embrittlement.

In addition, it is possible to select from an almost unlimited choice of colours, textures and effects to suit a massive range of product finishes, from small picture frames to large window frames. These finishes can be applied to a far greater variety of substrate materials, such a lightweight polymers. Just compare today’s mobile phones with a 1960s domestic telephone!

As well as being more predictable and reliable, these organically produced compounds are less harmful to the individuals that work with them and are considerably kinder to the environment, with modern process equipment able to recycle up to 98% of coating residues.

More streamlined

When it comes to efficiency and economy, paint and powder processes are superior to electro-plating in almost every respect. For a start there are fewer stages involved in the process. Typically, there are cleaning and pre-treatment stages, followed by spraying, immersion coating or e-coating. This is usually rounded off with heat treatment stages for stoving, curing, hardening and other requirements.

This compares with plating plants that can invariably have numerous stages for the cleaning and rinsing processes alone, with some plants having as many as fifty 1000 litre tanks, an awful lot of chemicals to be stored, used and disposed. A powder plant usually occupies a smaller actual footprint, with an equal reduction in carbon footprint, as considerably less energy is consumed. Processes such as passivation are not required; there is no need for rectifiers and regulators and much less in terms of effluent treatment, a major factor for electroplating operations.

Skills shortage

Then there are the skills required to operate paint and powder plants in comparison to wet finishing. Electro-plating engineers have been among the most sought-after and highly paid operatives in manufacturing. In contrast, those employed in the paint and powder industry can be trained relatively quickly and are required to know much less about chemical formulations and the intricacies of coating processes.

These skills and knowledge have largely been bypassed by the chemical producers, who present manufacturers with a ready-made formula that is tried and tested. It all adds up to fewer numbers of less skilled people being required. Product testing becomes a formality rather than a barrier to finished production and the finishing properties follow global standards that can be easily understood across international boundaries.

In this instance, there is an analogy with the newspaper printing industrial revolution of the 1980s and 90s. Before the onset of new technology, newspaper production was dependant on numerous trades such as typesetting, compositing and other traditional crafts. Pages were produced in hot metal, with print unions frequently holding publishers to ransom with their high wage demands. All of this has now been replaced by a computerised system that transmits data directly from a PC to the plate-making process, with no stages in between.

Global flexibility

These improvements in product quality, productivity, energy efficiency, toxicity and sustainability are the reasons why manufacturers have become so much more flexible and dynamic in their production strategies throughout the world. Modern paint and powder coating plants cost a great deal less to install and operate and deliver a rapid return on investment. They also have a modular construction that makes them easy to relocate to other parts of the world.

This is why we are seeing so much change throughout the finishing industry. Electro-plating plants are being broken up or mothballed, with their place being taken by modern paint and powder facilities, often in other more competitive manufacturing countries such as China and South-East Asia. In many cases, it is cheaper to dispose of a plant in one country and build a brand new one elsewhere.

In this way, global corporations, such as those working in computers or consumer electronics, can afford to regularly evaluate their production cycles, change course and move finishing plants around the world with much less disruption than in the days of electroplating dominance.

At Riley Surface World, we are seeing the consequences of this trend on a daily basis. As an example, we took the decision to withdraw from the trading of DC rectifiers and transforming regulators recently because the demand had completely evaporated. Redundant electroplating plants are generally going straight to auction or are being decommissioned with very little prospect of renewal.

Upwardly mobile

At the same time, powder lines, pre-treatment lines, conveyor systems, tunnel ovens and other associated items are being installed, operated, mothballed, uninstalled and relocated at a rapid rate. At the same time, the annual consumption of paint and powder-related chemicals is growing at an exponential rate, as the following table illustrates.

Historical and Forecast Sales of Powder Coatings (2004, 2009 and 2014 forecast)

	2004	2009	2014 fc
Volume (million L)	1659	2452	3219
Value (million $)	3851	5440	7215
Average price ($/L)	2.32	2.22	2.24
Compound Annual Growth (%)
Volume		8.1	5.6
Value		7.2	5.8
Average price		-0.9	0.2

Source: International Paint & Printing Ink Council

There is no end in sight to this upwardly mobile sector of the finishing industry. If anything, the growth is expected to accelerate during the current decade, with strong growth in the consumption of organic coatings in the years ahead.

Of course, there will always be a place for electroplating in a diverse finishing industry. The process is still used for very fine coatings and the huge range of electroplating plants around the world will not disappear overnight. However, environmental regulations and the power of the green lobby will only get stronger, putting increasing pressure on those still wishing to maintain their plating capabilities.

Challenges for UK

So where does all of this activity leave the UK, and how can our indigenous industries and government prepare for the challenges to come? Firstly, we need to consider our core industrial base; aerospace, automotive and precision engineering are what we do best. We are no longer renowned for volume component production, the nuts and bolts economy has long gone east.

Our role is to develop the cutting edge properties of paint and powder coating and to be a world centre of excellence for those processes. We have the ability to create added value and to be a benchmark for other countries to follow.

We can also benefit from the huge amount of equipment recycling that is taking place. As used plants become available from the restructuring of large, global corporations, this presents opportunities for smaller, start-up companies to gain a low cost entry into the product finishing market, doing specialist coatings for niche manufacturing.

We are already seeing a growth of new, home-grown paint and powder finishing sub-contractors emerging to fill the void left by the traditional electro-plating companies. This will help to provide the infrastructure for the return of more high technology manufacturing to this country in the near future.