Success for Coventry engineering business following expansion

Published by

Peter Davison

Tim Martin (SAC & Co Engineering Design), Justine Chadwick (CW Growth Hub) and Craig Humphrey (CW Growth Hub)

A Coventry company has thanked a business support organisation for helping it shift up a gear after expanding to purpose-built premises.

SAC & Co Engineering Design moved into its current home at Cavans Way in Binley Industrial Estate in 2019, with the additional space and facilities allowing it to grow its industry leading prototype and low volume vehicle manufacture services.

The company, which was founded by Steve Charlton in 2007, has been making use of its two purpose-built studios, sheet metal fabrication bays, 3D scanning room, and product assembly suite to take on more bespoke manufacturing projects for the likes of Aston Martin as well as private customers from across the globe.

Investment from Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub helps butcher diversify

As well as using cutting-edge 3D scanning capabilities used to replicate parts from classic vehicles, SAC is also helping to bring about the next generation of electric vehicles thanks to its engineering innovations and collaborations with major suppliers.

The Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub, which will celebrate its tenth anniversary next year, helped the business access £75,000 in grants from the Coventry and Warwickshire Green Business Programme and the Coventry & Warwickshire Business Support Programme which were part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to install LED lighting.

The facility also includes a paint shop which has been leased by SAC & Co Engineering Design to Andy Hawtin, who has launched his own business, Total Paint Solutions.

The business also accessed a grant of £8,200 for the new paint shop from the Manufacturing Growth Programme, funded by the ERDF and delivered by Economic Growth Solutions, part of Oxford Innovation Services Ltd.

Tim Martin, business development manager at SAC Engineering Design, said the Growth Hub had been instrumental in supporting the growth of the business over the last few years.

He said: “We needed to move to larger premises in 2018 as we looked to expand our range of services and take on more work. We applied to the Growth Hub for assistance, which helped us to completely transform the place into a bespoke, low volume beautiful emporium for people to see the kind of creations they would like.

“We were able to build a scanning studio to allow us to 3D scan original items to reverse engineer parts for collectible masterpieces, and all of this has been crucial to our growth in recent years.”

Craig Humphrey, CEO of the Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub, visited the site to see its development over the years.
He said: “When a company like SAC has barriers to growth, it’s really important that they have access to the support that’s available in the region.

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“It’s really gratifying to see that our work together over the years has yielded some excellent, sustained growth, and we’re proud to have supported them in that mission.”

Justine Chadwick, Account Manager at Coventry and Warwickshire Growth Hub, added: “The site has come a long way since SAC first moved in a few years ago and it’s brilliant to see its progress.

"As well as improvements to the facility, there has been lots of dialogue around skills, recruiting engineers, business to business introductions and looking at different markets SAC can work with.”

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.