£600,000 investment gives Calne Engineering a sustainability boost

Published by

Peter Davison

Precision engineering and sheet metal fabrication firm Calne Engineering is expanding after investing in a new sustainable cutting machine set to increase its productivity, with support from Lloyds Bank.

Calne Engineering, specialists in laser cutting for large-scale infrastructure projects, works with more than 100 contractors and engineering firms, including large blue-chip companies responsible for nationally significant infrastructure projects.

Founded in 1978, the business recently secured a £600,000 hire purchase loan to enable the purchase of an Amada 3015 CNC fibre laser cutting machine.

The new machine is expected to boost productivity, thanks to improved cutting power and speed, and will also enable the company to laser cut copper and brass for the first time.

The new technology uses compressed air rather than stored CO2 and oxygen and is set to significantly bolster Calne Engineering’s sustainability credentials.

Compared to its previous cutting machine, it is expected to use around 65 per cent less energy when operating, and 89 per cent less energy when in standby. This will save the business potentially £20,000 a year in running costs alone.

With the improved speed of the machine and cost-savings, Calne Engineering is now targeting further growth, expecting to boost turnover by 10 per cent this year.

Managing director Mark Board said: “One of the key reasons for our success over the last four and a half decades is our commitment to investing in cutting-edge machinery. It helps us to evolve and provide clients with the best quality products and service. This latest machine will allow us to explore a whole new avenue, by increasing our capacity, adding new services for copper and brass, and cutting our costs and energy usage.

“We recognise the importance of prioritising sustainability and are supporting firms across the country with their own sustainability goals so that we can all move in the same direction towards net zero. We’re investing to make that happen, and Laura and the team at Lloyds Bank have been instrumental in driving our green journey.”

Laura Willoughby, relationship manager at Lloyds Bank said: “We're proud to be supporting Calne Engineering as it invests not just in further growth, but also in a greener future for both the business and its customers as we head towards net zero.

“The business has a strong reputation for quality and efficient service that resonates with many of its major clients. Delivering infrastructure projects is high on the government's agenda right now as it recognises the benefits that these schemes can deliver, and Calne Engineering will play a key role in supporting this."

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.