Engineering firm to invest in strategic machinery with funding from HSBC
Westley Group, one of Europe’s largest privately-owned foundry and engineering groups, is set to further invest in new CNC machinery following an eight-figure funding package from HSBC UK.
The funding from HSBC UK will support the group’s UK business plans to add further value to its foundry activities through machining more of the castings it produces for its worldwide customer base.
In addition, the financing allows Cradley Heath-based Westley Group to grow further into existing and emerging markets for their highly complicated products; most of which are safety-critical in application. This will allow a number of new jobs to be created in skilled machining operations across its four manufacturing sites.
Westley Group is a trusted world expert in heat, wear and corrosion resistant alloys for a wide range of strategic equipment and safety critical applications, servicing a range of industries including defence, marine, aerospace, oil and gas, architecture and general engineering. One of their key markets is the UK’s and overseas’ surface and sub-surface strategic naval defence market.
James Salisbury, chief executive at Westley Group, said: “This agreement with HSBC UK allows us to expand our services by investing in new machinery and upgrading our facilities to grow the group’s offering to our customer base – it gets us even closer to our customer and their own finished product.
“The products we produce are subject to some of the world’s most stringent of testing criteria. They are also incredibly complicated from a metallurgical and geometrical perspective. Our customers rely more and more on our expertise to deliver a finished product including all testing and certification”.
Keith Webb, deputy regional director and head of manufacturing for the Midlands at HSBC UK, added: “Westley Group has a clear commitment to manufacturing excellence and we look forward to further supporting the development of this well-established business that is a leader in its field, whilst helping to create new jobs within the UK and supporting its plans for business growth.”
Colin Rodrigues, corporate partner at Hawkins Hatton, said: “Every agreement brings its own unique traits and differentiation requirements. We worked closely with Mike Richards, FD to determine the factors that would be required to get the deal done. That meant we had to complete the agreement expediently, which was a challenge given the number of commercial properties”.
Westley Group was recognised as one of the UK’s top 200 private companies with fastest-growing international sales in the 2021 Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200.
