Hi-Force continues with HUGE expansion of operations worldwide!!

Hi-Force, the Daventry headquartered, global high pressure hydraulic tools provider has continued with its ambitious expansion plans throughout 2011 and into 2012 and beyond.

In June 2011 the Group doubled the size of its Western Australia facilities via the acquisition of an adjoining facility in Rockingham, about 100 kilometres from the Regional capital of Perth. The new wholly owned premises, comprising of a two storey office block and warehouse totalling 710 square metres, will be used for storage of vastly increased stocks of Hi-Force products and spare parts. The additional space was urgently required due to continuously increased demands for the Company's UK manufactured products and will help reduce costly air freight shipping costs to the most remote city on the planet! With this new storage facility, product can now be shipped by the container load, from the UK manufacturing facilities on a monthly basis, providing Hi-Force Australia with a continuous and healthy supply of Hi-Force products.

In October 2011 Hi-Force Middle East Regional Distribution Centre in Dubai relocated to a new wholly owned and purpose built facility within the Jebel Ali Free Zone. The new facility, which is three times the size of the previous one, incorporates a fully equipped workshop repair facility, designated practical and classroom training facility and a huge fully air conditioned warehouse, for storage of over 95% of the Company product range offering. In the highly demanding Middle East Region this allows Hi-Force to deliver to customers from stock rather than on a forward order basis. Recent additional appointments of key staff have seen the Hi-Force Middle East team grow to over 40 persons since the beginning of 2012.

In February 2012 Hi-Force South Africa Regional Distribution Centre also purchased a brand new facility, double the size of the previous one! During 2011 Hi-Force South Africa proved to be the Group's fastest expanding region with growth of almost 70% on the previous year. Many new, highly motivated employees have joined the Hi-Force South African team in recent months and Hi-Force is now gearing itself up towards major growth within the whole of Africa. Similar to Australia & Dubai this new facility, located in Midrand, which is between Johannesburg and Pretoria, will enable the Company to vastly increase its stock holding within Southern Africa, providing Hi-Force users with high quality UK manufactured, hydraulic tools immediately available from locally held stock in the Region.

In March 2012, Hi-Force Daventry manufacturing facilities took delivery of a further Mori Seiki NMV5000 5 axis CNC machining centre. Valued at almost £700,000 this brand new addition to the Company's existing fleet of eight Mori Seiki machines, includes a five pallet loading system making it the most efficient (and costly) machine purchased to date!! The five pallet system reduces machine down time by switching machining operations between pallets, whilst the operator loads raw material or removes completed items, meaning that the machine never stops machining! It also has the facility to complete multiple machining operations on individual products, by switching from pallet to pallet, which allows completed product to come off the machine faster than if each machining operation is completed in batches. Plans to buy this machine were actually brought forward by a year due to high demands on our machine shop which currently runs for 16 hours per day, five days a week. Weekend and night shift operations are fast moving up the list of requirements for the Daventry manufacturing facilities.

Finally and probably most significantly, Group Managing Director, Kevin Brown recently confirmed that the planned expansion of the Daventry manufacturing facilities has now been given the green light and construction of an additional 2,200 square metres, to add to the existing 4,800 square metre facility, will commence in July 2012. The construction, in collaboration with Daventry District Council, is a fast track project and the contractors are anticipating handover to Hi-Force by latest end of April 2013. The new building will be used specifically for all of the UK logistics requirements, including goods inwards, goods outwards and storage of finished products as well as raw materials. During the announcement, Kevin explained that: "By moving our complete logistics operation to the new building it will free off an additional 1,000 square metres of space in the existing building, for further expansion of both our machine and assembly shops. It is anticipated that this, combined with the purchase of four more CNC machines, plus further additions to the existing workforce of over 65 people here at the UK facility, will result in a 50% increase in our manufacturing capabilities. The existing road (Morris Road) between the two buildings will be closed off giving the Company a further 600 square metres of secure yard area".

In readiness for the expansion in Daventry Hi-Force is currently looking to recruit nine additional employees in Engineering Design, Stores & Logistics & Assembly, plus CNC programmers, setters and operators in their "state of the art" and fast expanding machine shop. You can find details of all vacancies in the job section of this website.

All in all these continue to be exciting times for Hi-Force, a Daventry headquartered and independent, privately owned Company, which continues to expand and prosper under the leadership of Kevin Brown and his hard working management team.

"Pictured above is an artist's impression of the expanded facilities for Hi-Force headquarters in Daventry"