MRT Castings honoured by Company of the Year title for hiked aluminium components production

Andover-based MRT Castings have been hailed as the Company of the Year at Industry awards for its exceptional business strategies that tripled the size of its operations during the long nights of Covid-19.

MRT Castings not only did increase its activities but successfully supplied cast aluminium components for the creation of critical care ventilators, which had extreme demand at the time of the pandemic. The firm also impressed the judges on humanitarian grounds, which led to the win. MRT had to surpass many eligible contenders.

The company was also recognised as the 'best of British casting' at the current UK Cast Metal Industry Awards 2022, which had a guest toll of about 200 heads.

Company officials invested over £3.5m in acquiring seven auxiliary CNC machines and two additional die-casting cells and gave job opportunities to 45 new candidates for the heavily augmented production volume. The production rate of cast aluminium components grew from £7.8 million to £20.8 million in a few months.

The managing director of MRT Castings, Phil Rawnson, quoted: "Our growth plans, which we had intended to take over five years, were condensed into weeks as we invested over £3.5m into meeting the urgent needs of customers supporting the Covid-19 effort.

"This was a massive task, but one that was achieved thanks to the amazing hard work of our staff. Importantly for the business, it is now also enabling new projects and process optimisation, leading to major new customers in a range of sectors," Rawson added to his statement.

The CEO of Castings PLC, Adam Vicary, explained: "Despite the gloomy economic predictions, the majority of our foundries are doing well, and this is typified by the quality and innovation of our finalists."

"We can clearly see a commitment to innovation and problem solving, working with customers and embracing new technology from all our winners, not to mention a willingness to collaborate, develop workforces and push forward with sustainability," Vicary concluded.

The awards night ended on a serious note, monumentalising the 40th anniversary of the HMS Sheffield, which had sunk during the Falklands crisis.