BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - Small is still beautiful for expanding British injection and extrusion equipment manufacturer Boston Matthews Machinery Ltd. Even so, the Worcester, England, company now has launched its largest injection molding press yet - the BM50 55-ton - with a choice of simple or more-sophisticated control systems, at Interplas '96 in Birmingham.
Boston Matthews, which also showed its NU20 universal coextruder, along with its redesigned range of extruders, now offers a selection of lower-priced injection molding machines from 11-55 tons.
The firm says it does not intend to expand to bigger presses. By the year's end it plans to offer a full choice of machine controls from solid state to open-loop and closed-loop microprocessor controls for its range.
Boston Matthews, formed as the result of a management buy-out back in 1984, has reported sales up by 300 percent since 1992. The company has raised its 1996 turnover forecast beyond its annual target of œ5 million ($8.3 million).
The company is expanding its export sales rapidly, said sales manager Peter Kearney, especially with its extrusion equipment. About half of its machinery is sold to countries such as France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands, as well as to South Africa and Pakistan.
Boston Matthews continues to expand in the United Kingdom in the face of powerful competition from European and other foreign imports but is confident it is filling a vital market serving the smaller processor.
Its U.S. unit, Boston Matthews Inc. of Norwood, N.J., reported major sales successes with new business in North, Central and South America.
Last year the British machinery supplier increased employment by 10 percent at its 30,000-square-foot Worcester plant.