2021 has provided many challenges for not only Cutwel, but the manufacturing industry as a whole. The COVID pandemic continues to cast a large shadow over every aspect of people’s lives, reducing demand for certain manufactured goods which has a knock-on effect on many sectors within the industry. In real terms, this means many businesses have had to unfortunately close or downscale their operational capacity.

Despite this, Cutwel has managed to steer itself through these problems and even seen an increase of sales to over £23 million. This would not have been possible without our fantastic staff, trusted suppliers and partners, and our loyal customers. Cutwel would like to take this opportunity to thank them all for their support throughout 2021.

In this article, Cutwel would like to share with you several key updates from over the past 12 months:

Cutwel's 25th Anniversary

Cutwel was founded in 1996 in a terraced house in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire with just 1 member of staff. 25 years later, Cutwel now has a staff count of over 80 employees and reside in a dedicated 10,000 sq ft office and distribution centre in Cleckheaton.

Cutwel are very proud of their history and phenomenal growth to become a market leading cutting tool supplier. Growth has been accelerated in the last 3 years with a management buyout led by private equity firm NorthEdge.

Cutwel celebrated their 25 years through a variety of (COVID safe) staff events including lunches and a private ice cream van. However, the most significant feature of this 25 year milestone was…

New Cutwel Branding

In line with its 25th anniversary, Cutwel also undertook a forward-thinking rebrand which better reflect the company’s values and company image. CEO Adam Gillard says:

“The rebrand reflects who we are today, reinforcing that we go beyond being simply a tooling supplier. We work in partnership with customers to deliver quality products, backed by technical expertise, to help them be as productive as possible. With 25 year’s experience of consistently delivering the best performing products at the best prices, we felt the business deserved a more modern aesthetic and messaging.”

The rebrand included a change in Cutwel’s logo, strapline, colour scheme and styling of their marketing materials. With this in place, Cutwel is better suited to move forward as a professional market leading tooling supplier.

New Partners

Cutwel expanded their supplier base in 2021 to offer further choice to its customers whilst strengthening their existing product and service offering. New additions include:

Bowers Group

Bowers provide an unrivalled choice of high-quality precision measuring equipment and have become global market leaders in their field. The Bowers Group is also home to other leading measuring brands (which Cutwel also supply) including Trimos, Sylvac, Baty and Moore & Wright.

Bowers Metrology (and sub-brands) supply a range of quality measuring equipment including:

• Calipers.
• Micrometers.
• Bore Gauges.
• Bore Micrometers.
• Height Gauges.

Cutwel can also supply more advanced measuring solutions to suit a range of requirements, please get in touch on 01924 869610 or email sales@cutwel.net for more information or for a quotation.

Hainbuch

Hainbuch began life over 70 years ago and has risen to be the worldwide authority in clamping head solutions. Cutwel are proud to partner with Hainbuch and offer their fantastic range of clamping heads and chucks, allowing customers to utilise existing Hainbuch clamping heads on their machining centre.

Quick change chucks in as little as 15 seconds with 0.01mm repeatability and a clamping range from 4mm up to 100mm. Suitable for clamping round, square or hexagon parts.

Charity Work

Cutwel always look at ways to give back to the community. Whilst Cutwel has managed to navigate through COVID, others have found it harder. With this in mind, Cutwel has made donations to a variety or organisations including Andy’s Man Club, Kirkwood Hospice, Martin House Hospice, Yorkshire Dog Rescue and, alongside one of our customers, The BAY Foodbank and East End Women’s Refuge.

Cutwel also partnered with Andy’s Man Club founder Luke Ambler to deliver a number of sessions to Cutwel staff about combatting mental health issues, which were received very positively. Furthermore, Cutwel also developed 3 additional staff members as ‘Mental Health First Aiders’, alongside existing first aiders Keith Butterfield and Samantha Ramsden.

First Ever Corporate Video

As part of the company’s new look and to further convey the values and professional approach to customer service, Cutwel filmed their first ever full corporate video which featured some of our very own talented employees (hands off Hollywood)!

The video showed every aspect of Cutwel’s operations from the distribution centre, stocked with over 35,000 parts for next day UK delivery, through to its team of fully trained account managers and customer care team, and time-served team of technical engineers.

Also highlighted was the Cutwel Academy, where all sales staff undergo full product training to ensure advice and information provided to customers are accurate and timely. Finally, the video touched on the external Technical Applications Team, who work on-the-road to provide on-site advice and training to customers.

Watch the full corporate video below!

Revamped Trade Counter

In order to further improve our overall customer service levels, one of our Senior Customer Care Team Members Sam Daly has been deployed at the trade counter to assist with any enquiries from customers visiting the premises.

With over 9 years’ experience, excellent product knowledge and close relations with the distribution centre, Sam has proven to be an important cog in Cutwel’s operational wheel. This has led to increased efficiency and improved service levels for all our visitors to the trade counter.

Recruitment Drive

In line with Cutwel’s growth plans, the company has continued to expand its team, even with the current global challenges. Over the course of 2021, Cutwel has recruited 30 new employees across all departments including Operations, Sales, Marketing, Accounts and IT.

Many of the new recruits have joined as school leavers or as apprentices. In Marketing, for instance, Cutwel have taken on 2 apprentices (Charlotte Welch and Hajra Umarji), continuing Cutwel’s long tradition of supporting young people and developing them into professional employees and leaders.

Internally, Cutwel have also been working on developing its team members through ‘emerging leaders’ training. Participants from each department completed a series of workshops before presenting to management on what they learnt and how they will apply their leadership training to day-to-day roles.

New 25th Anniverary Catalogue

Despite the growing trend of digital media, Cutwel have never lost sight of the importance of a physical catalogue. 2021 saw the release of Cutwel’s 25th anniversary edition catalogue, covering all product ranges which Cutwel supply. The 1,400 page bumper catalogue is packed full of Cutwel’s product offerings including lathe tools, milling tools, hole making tools, threading tools, lubrication, abrasives and deburring tools.

The catalogue was also the first implementation of Cutwel’s new-look branding and modern design style, helping to drive forward their new, market-leading brand ethos.

Click here to view the full catalogue or, alternatively, get in touch to request a hard copy.

New Product Ranges

Further to the new additions to their supplier base, Cutwel’s existing suppliers have also been busy creating new and innovative product ranges which either build on existing offerings or realise completely new ways of approaching machining operations. See a few highlights below:

Prime-X Taps

One of the newest innovations from one of Cutwel’s longest and strongest partners YG-1 is their Prime-X Tap, building on their existing high performance HSS-PM Prime Taps.

Witness a revolution in multi-purpose machine tapping with the Prime-X Tap!

• Premium powder metal (HSS-PM) with special X-coating.
• Suitable for up to 50% higher tapping speeds than standard HSS-E taps.
• Extremely reliable on a wide range of ductile materials with highly improved wear resistance.
• Special geometry prevents tap failure due to overfeeding.

VG-CUT

Market leaders Vargus present VG-Cut: a multifunctional grooving, turning, profiling and threading tool which provides exceptional high performance in both external and internal applications. Through coolant is provided as standard, with just one toolholder and one insert required to perform multiple applications.

What this system provides is cost efficiency, improved productivity and reduced downtime, with no need to change the toolholder between operations. Plus with over 5 times more tool life than conventional multifunctional tools, you are guaranteed an economical, high quality machining solution.

HF4 (ENMX) Mill

YG-1 have also provided a brand-new innovation in indexable milling: the HF4 (ENMX) High Feed Mill.

The HF4 Mill is a revolutionary new high feed milling system designed for machining steel, hardened steel, stainless steel, HRSA (exotic materials) and cast iron from 16mm up to 52mm diameters.

• ENMX inserts feature 4 cutting edges for economical machining.
• Suitable for high feed milling, profiling, face milling, ramping and helical interpolation.
• High feed mill which improves productivity, slash cycle times with increased depth of cut.
• Wide flank face for rigid insert clamping.

New Secure Card Payment System

Back in January, Cutwel launched a new PCI compliant payment system for card payments made over the phone.

Cutwel are now able to offer our customers a "pay now" link where an email can be sent with a link to make a secure card payment. This can be used for both upfront payments as well as payments to pay outstanding account balances.

Environmentally Friendly Ethos

Cutwel constantly tries to not only improve process efficiency, but also ensure these improvements also contribute to the company’s aim to reduce its own carbon footprint. Over the course of the year, Cutwel have implemented several environmentally sustainable practices including:

• Installing electric charging points in the Cutwel staff car park, which are available for all staff to use during the working day.
• Re-using packaging received from suppliers.
• Replacing foam with recyclable paper in customer orders.
• Encouraging paperless invoicing wherever possible.
• Using a new baler machine, which crushes waste to reduce the space used in skips and therefore reducing the amount of waste going to landfill sites.

These improvements are on top of those made previously by the company, including a cycle to work scheme which encourages sustainable transport.