From Tarpaulins to Tension curtains and Playgrounds

Author: Martin Sailer, General Manager Leister International AG

”Every week is different”, says Mark Judson beaming across the face. ”This is what our business is like. One day a customer wants standard lorry tarpaulins, another day someone needs tension curtains, and yet another customer bring their own material and we have to make things work with that.”

This is exactly where Andrew Mitchell & Co Ltd. of Wigan in the industrial North of England count on the flexibility offered by their Leister SEAMTEK W-900 AT. ”We did not know it can weld netting. But when we tried, we were very positively surprised, and now completely went away from sewing them.” Ashley Martin the operations manager, is one of the creative heads of the company, often experimenting with new ways to go about the company's many tasks.

125 Years of Evolution: Innovation and Growth at Andrew Mitchell

And with its long, nearly 125 year-long history, Andrew Mitchell have embraced change from generation to generation, starting production of tarpaulins for horse-drawn wagons in the century before last, and having supported many trends up to and including inflatable jumping castles and indoor playground equipment for children. 

And the company has certainly not stopped changing after Mark Judson and Marie Taylor had acquired the company they had long been employed by some five years ago. ”The industrial compound we are located in will be redeveloped by re-purposing two large historic mills into restaurants and many other services. So in a few years we will have to move out of here. But that is a real chance as it gives us the opportunity to re-think our ways.” Mark is not afraid of change, so much is clear. By investing into equipment and by being open to innovation, the company has nearly doubled its turnover in the past couple of years, while being able to keep the headcount more or less the same.

Tony Clarke, Central UK Business Manager , Welwyn Tool Group Ltd ( Leister Distributor in UK) ; Mark Judson, Managing Director, Andrew Mitchell & Co. Ltd, Wigan ; Ashley Martin, Operations manager , Andrew Mitchell & Co. Ltd, Wigan (left to right)

SEAMTEK W-900 AT: Precision and Flexibility in Action

Their Leister SEAMTEK W-900 AT is just such an example of a profitable investment. Neatly integrated into their production setup, Ashley made sure that welder operator Kelly, formerly employed on the company's sewing machines, easily outperforms her old speed records. Ashley explains that he is particularly fond of the innovative thin-wedge technology of his particular tool version: No fumes at all and extreme flexibility in materials that can be welded easily. One might say, ”a seamless process”, but that would of course be technically incorrect. The seams are, in fact, the key in this business: Watertight and optically really perfect. "Kelly really likes the machine. What is also very good is that we can flexibly use our operators between the SEAMTEK and our older sewing machines, just as the application demands.” When walking in the workshop it is obvious that the company management are looking after their employees and take their inputs seriously, thereby getting the maximum out of their equipment and processes.

Versatile Tools: Enhancing Efficiency and Future Readiness

But the SEAMTEK wedge welder is of course not the only machine in use at the workshop: While they still operate two large high frequency machines, they have moved a number of processes away to the flexible Leister VARIANT T1 automatic welder which is equally in constant operation on the shopfloor. And for detailed work a Leister TRIAC is never far.

Tony Clarke of Welwyn Tool Group (WTG), Leister's long-standing UK distributor, discusses future demands of more such welders as business is running well for Andrew Mitchell & Co. And as the company can rely on fast and competent after market service for all their Leister machines provided by WTG, they feel comfortable placing their orders through them. But Tony also listens carefully to the needs of the operators and will surely pass them on to the engineers at Leister – valuable input for the next generations of the world leading plastic welding tools.