Lancashire-based housewares manufacturer and exporter, What More UK has acquired local toolmaker Canteen Smithy Engineering, boosting its manufacturing capabilities. The acquisition also brings the company towards self-sufficiency in its mould making.
Canteen Smithy is a specialist engineering company with over 35 years’ experience in precision mould manufacture and precision engineering. Its toolmakers include some with more than 35 years’ service, who are passing on traditional skills to apprentices.
“Acquiring Canteen Smithy, who has been a supplier of ours for some time, is a great natural fit,” says What More company director Tony Grimshaw OBE. “We need the extra capacity this will give us, and it means we are working closer to self-sufficiency in mould making. We firmly believe in Made in Britain and they’re only a short distance away, which also helps our carbon footprint!”
He emphasises: ““This purchase will also mean most of our moulds will now be made in house and in Britain. Before the purchase, our injection moulding tools were purchased abroad, and we now have the capability to manufacture them ourselves.”
With new technology a priority, Canteen Smithy has invested in its own in-house design studio, along with CNC mills, surface grinders, lathes, and cylindrical grinders.
“We want to keep the UK’s strong history of manufacturing alive, and we require so many different tools for both our Bakeware and Plastics divisions, which are two completely different profiles, that taking on Canteen Smithy and all their knowledge and expertise means we can push forward with our growth,” Tony explains.
Above: What More’s headquarters.
