Bradford Tool Group shows its cutting edge with Chinese deal

IF it is only a matter of time before China becomes the world's largest economy, then it is just as inevitable that Yorkshire's traditional industrial hubs will suffer as the world shifts East. At least that is what some people would have us believe.

But the truth is more complex. Despite the commercial might of the communist country, it still needs to turn to firms in

this region for the technology that can keep its factories' cogs turning.

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One of those businesses is Bradford Tool Group which, 40 years after it was founded, is on course to enjoy its best year of sales and is looking to increase turnover in 2011.

The family firm won its first Chinese contract this year and it was this, as well as a series of other deals to supply specialist cutting tools, that has helped it buck the recession.

Earlier this year, the firm won an order, worth about 200,000, to provide tools to Airbus China – although its equipment had no connection with the suspected oil leak which triggered an engine fire on an Airbus A380 earlier this month – and it also has contracts with firms in India, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland and continental Europe.

Steve Sheldon, managing director of Bradford Tool Group, said the firm was on course to turn over 5m this year, the best in its history and up from 4.75m the previous year.

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Now he hopes to increase turnover by a further 1m from 2011 onwards, providing Britain avoids falling into a double-dip recession.

The firm was set up in 1970 by Bill McGrath, who is today chairman and semi-retired, and his late brother, John.

Mr Sheldon joined the firm as a 16-year-old in 1973 and became MD in 1990. He said his rise is an example of how workers can rise through the ranks.

"I used to drive round the country knocking on doors and so did Bill McGrath, but we don't have to do that now."

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He said the firm, which is based at Beta Works, on Tong Street, and has 50 engineering craftsmen, had benefited from not being reliant on one industry.

It has about 750 customers and its products have been used in the construction industry for drilling girders for steel-framed buildings, and in the medical sector,

for which it produces precision

instruments used in hip operations.

It also supplies firms which work in the aircraft, automotive and general engineering sectors, with clients ranging from Rolls Royce Aerospace, to Biomet Orthopaedic USA, which distributes medical products globally for surgical

use.

BTG has no borrowings, Mr Sheldon, said, so it is well-placed to expand.

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"How many engineering companies run without an overall deficit? Hardly any. When the bank manager came to see me, I said 'how much money do you want to borrow?'"

BTG has doubled in size over the last 20 years and introduced new products, such as supercut rotabores for the construction industry, which provides sales worth 1.5m a year for the firm.

Precision tools have a short lifespan because they become unusable after a certain amount of re-grinds, and Mr Sheldon compared them to "industrial food" because they always need replenishing.

Much of Bradford Tool Group's business comes from word-of-mouth recommendations and although the firm aims to grow, Mr Sheldon urged policymakers not to push Britain back into recession with gloomy rhetoric about the health of the economy.

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"When the Government starts talking about a double dip, it makes everybody stop buying cars and televisions. They talk themselves into it."

Changing face of go-ahead firm

Bradford Tool Group is owned by Bill McGrath, his sons, David and Steven, and Steve Sheldon, the managing director.

Mr Sheldon's career has also taken in a series of changes in the way the company operates.

One of the biggest changes came in the 1980s when BTG moved to computerised manufacturing, known as computer numerically controlled design

(CNC).

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