Iron being tapped out of our
Inductotherm one tonne furnace.
Iron being tapped out of our
Inductotherm one tonne furnace.
Approved to ISO 9001-2000, we produce the entire Ductile Iron range including Simo, Ni-resist & ADI materials.
We are proud of our reputation for high quality service which has been recognised by many leading manufacturers including Cummins Engine Company, Borg Warner Turbo Systems, Honeywell, and Bloksma to name just a few.
Vanguard’s joint MD Chris Mintern, the incoming President of the ICME West Midlands Branch, followed on from Dean Millington. Chris was presented with his chain of office on Monday 5-04-10. Chris had particularly welcome support from Wife Lynne and daughter Hayley. Chris thanked Dean for his years extremely hard work and was sure that he could rely on the branch council and the members for their continued support throughout next year.
Between 2002 and 2008 sales had grown by 30% year on year. October 2008 began at a similar pace but fell away so rapidly that by the 4th week the company was working just a 4 day week. Despite all shop floor, staff and Directors adopting 4 day working arrangements the falling sales forced Vanguard to close its night shift in January 2009 with the loss of some 40 jobs.
The demand for product stabilised around May 2009 and began to slowly recover in October of that year. Five day operations began in November and were maintained into January 2010 when further improvements in demand started to be seen in the schedules. During February and March demand accelerated and night shift operations restarted on 22nd March. We are pleased to report that all recruits have come from those employees we had to let go in 2009
Margot James, Conservative Party candidate for Stourbridge and the Party Vice Chairman, visited Vanguard in February as part of her campaign. She was interested to hear the views of the management on what support had been provided by Government and what the Government could do to help in the future success of the Company. Following the discussions Margot toured the foundry work shops. Photo shows Margot with John Willets and Chris Mintern.
Tracey Turner who has worked at Vanguard for 11 years finally managed to convince Steve her long time partner that they should do the decent thing and get married. The ceremony took place at the Bethel Chapel in Lye on Saturday 12-12-09. The best wishes of everyone at Vanguard go out to Mr and Mrs Perks on their special day.
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Pete Smith as Product Development Engineer effective Monday 12th Oct 2009. Pete brings a wealth of experience to the already well established technical team, having spent his entire working career in iron foundries. It was particularly pleasing for Chris Mintern to reunite with Pete, as they first started working together some 32 years ago! With the appointment of Pete, Vanguard now has in the region of 320 years foundry experience in the management team!
Chris Mintern (L) welcomes Pete Smith to Vanguard.
We are pleased to announce that Natalie Tromans has been appointed to the position of Production Control Manager. Natalie has worked at Vanguard since 2005 during which time she was responsible for payroll. We have no doubt that Natalie will do a first class job in this role allowing customers to have accurate information regarding order lead times and delivery promises.
A team from Vanguard’s HWS moulding line recently entered a five-a-side tournament and did remarkably well. Winning all the qualifying games we got through to the final playing the only other team to have won all their games. The final was never going to be easy and following a couple of early goals against us we came back with a couple of our own. During the second half the opposition showed their superior skill and the final score was a disappointing 7 – 3. Still an excellent performance for a new team.
Vanguard’s nearly victorious five-a-side team.
Top row: L-R Captain Sean Keegan, Barry Brittle, Matt Webb and Marcus Robinson.
Middle Row: Jason Attwood, Paul Mallen and Andy Clayton (mascot).
Bottom: Martin ‘the cat’ Brown.
The installation of a second furnace at Vanguard South was started last September but the project was put on hold with the serious downturn in business. New orders recently won have allowed the installation to be completed and the 750Kg Inductotherm furnace was commissioned on Wednesday 6th May 2009.
First Iron tapped from the 750Kg, 500Kw Inductotherm Furnace.
The addition of the Inductotherm furnace more than doubles the sites current
melting capacity.
John Hewitt, the furnaceman at Vanguard South seems very pleased with his new
furnace.