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BCW were proud to feature in the Auto Express' September special showcasing their manufacturing capabilities and involvement with the new Jaguar Land Rover’s iconic Defender. 

BCW Manufacturing Group were approached by Mark Griffiths, Senior Press Officer, Land Rover UK to feature in the article celebrating the new Defender and the supply chain that supports it.  As Tier one supplier into Jaguar Land Rover, BCW machine and assemble body structures for multiple vehicles including the Defender. 

They welcomed Mark Griffiths and Sean Carson, Chief Reviewer, Auto Express Magazine on site where Brent Collins, Managing Director discussed working on such a prestigious vehicle. 

The Defender made a huge impact on site, with the vehicle being driven on to the factory floor, amongst the machines and operators who have played a key role in the production of the vehicle.

Here is a snippet of BCW’s write up:

One company that’s already been through part of this journey and is rapidly evolving is Burnley-based BCW.

Numbers aren’t everything, but they’re a good indicator of progress, as Managing Director Brent Collins points out.

In five years BCW the parts manufacturer has nearly tripled its annual turnover from just under £16 million, and in the space of another five years has ambitions to grow to the point where its revenue hits £100 million a year.

A walk around the factory with Collins shows this is not pie-in-the-sky talk. Like Adams at Sertec, Collins is a likeable no-nonsense leader who knows the strengths of his company and the employees that staff it – but also BCW’s potential and what it could become, and how it can better serve its clients, such as Land Rover.

Indirectly, in small ways, it’s helping to improve the cars British motorists buy. These companies are competitive, and in many cases, leaders on a global scale, thanks to efficiencies and the refining of processes that these manufacturing houses feed back to the likes of Land Rover.

Take the investment. Just one production line of many at the sprawling factory site is made up of five, six-axis robotic arms and six CNC machines, the former at a cost of £170,000 per unit, the latter coming in at £110,000 a pop.

Those suns are small fry compared with the level of future investment BCW is committed to though. It’s earmarked massive future funding for manufacturing cells dedicated to components that’ll go on to make up the next generation of electric vehicles.

It’s a one-stop shop that, thanks to the breadth of the companies within the group that owns BCW, sources raw materials (aluminium for its Land Rover products), cuts this into billet, extrudes this metal, machines it, coats it, anodizes it or passivates it. It has a company that recycles the waste, too, and a business that supplies the automation expertise.

Automation is key in the production process, and BCW’s knowledge here means it can also advise Land Rover on the bottlenecks at certain points on the production line, helping tweak the flow of parts to improve efficiency, in turn potentially improving the design of given part.

The relationship these businesses have is symbiotic; it’s a two-way process, and when you’re manufacturing enough components for 4,000 cars per week like BCW does, a few seconds saved on each one can translate into millions of pounds. Time is money.

One thing Sertec and BCW have in common is that, initially, they were both family owned and run. Over time the businesses have grown at their own rates to the point at which, now, each has a board of directors in place at the helm but the values that got them to where they are today are still at the core of the companies.

Adams says, “We don’t over promise, we over deliver,” while Collins recites his mantra: “It’s cost, quality and delivery ability” that defines the business.

It sounds corny, and maybe it is a little, but you get a sense that, just as the engineers you talk to at Land Rover feel an incredible level of pride for the car they’ve created, the people manufacturing the components that make it what it is share this sense of satisfaction as well.

A metal warehouse on a non-descript industrial estate in Burnley might not be the most glamorous location, neither is a manufacturing facility in Coleshill, but the work done at these sites isn’t to be underestimated.

To read the full article [September No1, 640] follow the link: https://www.autoexpress.co.uk

Photos courtesy of Auto Express Magazine.