NC ENGINEERING HAS RECORD YEAR AS EUROPEAN SALES GROW 25% FOR CITIZEN

NC Engineering of Watford sold a record 99 machines in the financial year ending March helping to bring Europe to be the fastest growth market for Citizen CNC sliding head automatic lathes with sales increasing so far this year by 25 per cent.

Said managing director Geoff Bryant: "The progressive and continuous development of the Citizen machine range is really bearing fruit around the world spurring additional investment in product development and production facilities to keep pace with demand and maintain the clear market leading position."

The Karuizawa factory in Japan broke all production records delivering 340 machines in March with a further 80 machines shipped from the new factory in Thailand that was opened in 2005. As part of the restructuring of the group, a new foundry has just been commissioned in Vietnam that is now supplying a third of Citizen Machinery’s casting requirements. Currently at the facility, machine tools are being installed so the factory can provide finished machined castings to the final assembly lines.

In the UK, 80 per cent of sales are being taken by the subcontract sector and the top of the range 13-axis Citizen M series is still the most popular due to the high level of flexibility it provides.

Of growing importance, says Geoff Bryant is the M16 with options of a single or two Y-axis cross feeds to the turret and gang slide: "The machine has proven to be ideal throughout the world as well as in the UK market for the medical sector to produce small, very accurate and delicate features for which there is no true production competitor."

To support UK operations, a Japanese engineer has been seconded to NC Engineering to liase with the technical and applications specialists and an additional service engineer recruited for the South East to help cover the growing installation base.

Currently, demand is running very high for the latest Citizen A20 that is being sold as a ‘ready to run’ package with bar feed for £65,000. Said Geoff Bryant: "This machine represents excellent value for a high specification machine that is very rigid and powerful. Its 22 mm capacity by 165 mm machining length and 17 tool capacity with four driven positions is ideal for subcontract machining and this has created a lot of interest for future sales in the UK."