Mills CNC Is on Track to Sell Over 500 Machines by The End of The Year

Mills CNC, the exclusive distributor of Doosan machine tools in the UK and Ireland, is on track to sell over 500 machines by the end of the year, following a significant sales surge after MACH and a record month in May. The projection is described as a conservative estimate, extrapolated from the company's half-year sales figures that show that deliveries of new machines during the January to June 2012 period having already exceeded 250 machines – the first time this has been achieved in Mills' 40 year history. Says managing director, Nick Frampton: "2012 looks like being another record-breaking year for Mills. Following an exceptional 2011 - we started 2012 extremely positively and delivered 130 machines in the first quarter. Then the MACH Show came along - and things really took-off!" Having booked its biggest ever stand at this year's MACH Show, where the company exhibited 16 new Doosan machines, Mills secured orders worth £1.6 million during the five-day event. "We were confident that MACH would be good for us and we expected to see a post-event spike in sales. We just didn't realise how big a spike it would be," adds Mr Frampton. In the month immediately following MACH, orders for 52 new machines were taken - making May 2012 the best month ever in Mills' history. "MACH provided us with a great platform to promote the depth and breadth of the Doosan range," explains the managing director. "Particularly pleasing for us was the number of new customers who visited our stand and who subsequently placed orders with us. This demonstrates the continuing 'pulling power' of the Mills: Doosan offering and, to date, 25% of all machines sold this year have been to new customers." Further analysis of the half-year results show that customers have invested in the full range of Doosan machines supplied and supported by Mills. From the 250 machines sold to date, the technology split is as follows: 28% for new frame (8", 10" and 12" chuck) Puma lathes; 13% for large (15" chuck and over) Puma lathes; 27% for DNM vertical machining centres; and 21% for Lynx lathes (which includes the new sub-spindle range that was launched at MACH). The remaining 11% is divided between Doosan horizontal machines, multi-axis machines and vertical turning lathes. Behind the scenes, moves have been made to boost the company's capability, too. Mr Frampton: "We have continued to invest in and strengthen our service provision during this period. We now employ 80 staff (60% of who are directly involved in delivering customer service and support), and have recently recruited additional highly qualified service and applications engineers to keep pace with and meet the needs of our large and growing installed base. "As part of our Continuous Improvement programme, we have also further streamlined our systems and processes to make us more efficient, more effective and more customer focused, and have just expanded the CNC Training Academy to better meet the training needs of our customers and of precision manufacturers as a whole." Source: www.machinery.co.uk