Young mechanic launches his first commercial product after scaling up business first started in family garage

Published by

Peter Davison

Ben Izen, owner of Samurai Machine Tool and Katherine Skerry, site manager at Space Business Centre Warwick

A 21-year-old Warwick mechanic has launched his first commercial product after scaling up a business he first started in his family garage.

Ben Izen from Stratford upon Avon began his machinery business Samurai Machine Tools whilst still at school, and is now expanding his operations after moving to his first premises at Space Business Centre Warwick.

The 35,000 sq ft development, created and developed by Warwick-based property company AC Lloyd Commercial, contains flexible multi-use units which are available on 30-day monthly rolling agreements.

Space Warwick’s flexibility and unit variety allowed Ben to take the leap and move his budding machinery business out of his parent’s garage.

Ben’s business focuses on the design and manufacture of futuristic CNC machines for the hobby and light industrial market.

CNC stands for Computer Numerical Control, meaning the machines run automatically to carve precision components from solid billets of aluminium, stainless steel, or titanium, with these components then used to make cars, planes, rockets.

The young entrepreneur had been building things since the age of five and was introduced to CNC machines when he began building an electric skateboard for a GCSE project, which he completed in his parents’ garage after the school’s machine broke.

His work on the CNC machine was recognised with an Arkwright Scholarship, which offers mentoring and financial support for emerging talents in engineering and enabled Ben to continue building his CNC machine.

After leaving Warwick School in 2020, Ben continued to work on improving his machine, during the pandemic, using funds his other machinery business Izen Engineering b to launch his own business, Samurai Machine Tools, at just 18 years old.

After gaining industry interest and building more complex machines, Ben began looking for a larger, more flexible base than his parents’ garage and found Space Warwick in 2023.

He was impressed by the location and facilities on offer for tenants, moving into his own unit this spring.

The unit has proved to be an excellent fit for Ben and his expansion plans, with the move helping him to secure further investment and launch his first product on the commercial market.

He said: “It is a great new chapter in my business, we were having such a hard time finding a suitable commercial premises to expand my business, until we found Space Business Centre. The sign-up process was simple and we moved into the brand-new unit the day it was opened.”

“Everything about the facility is perfect, from the monthly rolling contract and location to the modern design of the units. The ability to expand into more units as the business grows is something that hopefully I and many others will find exceptionally useful.”

Katherine Skerry, Site Manager at AC Lloyd Space Business Centre Warwick, said: “It is great to hear how a move to Space Warwick has helped Ben’s business expand from his family home into a professional base.

“We are continuing to see high demand for units from small business owners in south Warwickshire and are looking forward to growing our thriving business community and enabling tenants like Ben to grow and explore new ventures.”

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.