Production Engineering Solutions

Team building

UK toolmaker, Protool Manufacturing has appointed Ian Hunter to its management team. Mr Hunter, previously managing director, of Birkbys Plastics, will help develop Protool business in all market sectors.

Protool's managing director Steve Hall stated: "We are delighted to have Ian on board. Not only has he notched up an impressive number of business and management achievements with Birkbys, but he is also a qualified mechanical engineer and graduate apprentice toolmaker. We could not have made a better appointment in terms of our ambitions to grow the Protool business internationally and to communicate our service offering to purchasers everywhere."

Mr Hunter concurs: "As an apprentice trained toolmaker I am delighted to get back to my roots. Over the course of my career it has become obvious that any moulder, however skilled, is on a hiding to nothing when trying to produce from a poor quality tool. The strong tooling knowledge with Steve Hall, Spencer Carter and the team at Protool is as good as I have seen anywhere and Protool's core product of aluminium prototype/low volume production tools produced in rapid time really is a winning formula for the best in Western Europe.

"Protool's imported high quality, competitively priced steel tools for higher volume applications completes the picture," he added. "My role will be to help Protool fulfil its aggressive expansion plans by introducing world-class business systems as well as introducing new customers."

2007 saw Protool make a number of key end-of-year investments at its Havant-based operations including night staff recruited to make the business a fully 24/7 operation. Protool's ISO 9001 accredited business serves a number of clients in manufacturing including Formula 1 and automotive and key brand names in the housewares, medical and industrial markets. The 24/7 operation, according to Mr Hall, has benefitted existing clients and has lifted overall capacity at the Havant plant, facilitating the introduction of new clients and new business.