The new facility's 680 m2 showroom. Partner companies, such as those offering
tooling, workholding equipment and CADCAM, have set up permanent demonstration
areas. Inset (L-R): UK fi nance & administration director Jon Hart; Citizen Machinery UK
board member Hiromitsu Kamata; deputy UK managing director Darren Wilkins; Citizen
Machinery president Keiichi Nakajima; Councillor David Stanley; Citizen Machinery UK
managing director Edward James; Citizen Machinery UK director Toshiyuki Nagasawa
“Underpinning this success has been a
signi cant programme of investment in plant
and equipment, both within Japan and
beyond, including production capacity
expansion at our factories in Thailand,
Vietnam and the Philippines. We have also
expanded our sales and service provision,
notably with new technical
SUPPLY SIDE CITIZEN MACHINERY UK
Citizen Machinery UK deputy
managing director Darren Wilkins gave
an overview of the new facility, its use
and the positive impact it is already
having. He also reminded the audience
that its Bushey, Herts, location
continues to be the UK headquarters
followed over the next few years, I’m sure
we are all familiar with. However, I am
pleased to say that despite the impact of
the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the
subsequent recession, Citizen Machinery UK
has continued to play a critical role as our
distribution hub in Europe, helping to grow
markets and increase market share.
“As a result, sales of Citizen machines in
Europe have increased year on year. In
2018, Citizen Machinery achieved sales of
more than €600 million, its highest ever.
To put this into perspective, it meant the
European region achieved the group’s
highest sales, even beating Japan, where
our head of ce is located. Citizen is now UK
market leader for sales of all bar turning
autos, including sliding-head, greatly
contributing to the growth of our business
in Europe. As a result of this performance,
we achieved our target of 1,200 units sold
in Europe last year, which is a new record
high.
solution centres in Japan and China, and a
sales of ce expansion in India.
“However, the investment made in this
new UK centre of excellence exceeds all of
these and is a demonstration of Citizen
Machinery’s con dence in the UK.
Whereas other machine tool builders focus
more on investing in emerging markets
such as China and India, Citizen has
always had faith in the quality of the UK
engineering industry. Therefore, it was a
simple decision on my part to commit to
investing in this new facility.”
www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets August 2019 35
Large image Chris Wright, all others Andrew Allcock
/www.machinery.co.uk