December 2013/January 2014 - PAWPRINT PUBLISHING

NEWS
Leitz Tooling UK: serving British industry
IN 1876, Albert Leitz founded the
“Wurttemberg Wood Boring Factory”
in Oberkochen, South Germany
and the company began to
specialise in the manufacture of
hand and machine driven tools. To
this day, whilst being an international
company in over 35 countries
and what is believed to be the
UK’s largest supplier of tooling to
British wood derived industries,
Leitz GmbH & Co KG remains family
owned.
30 years ago, Leitz acquired British
saw manufacturer, CD Monninger
(est. 1867) to set up Leitz Tooling UK.
In 1990, the company moved to its
present headquarters in Harlow, a site
which also acts as one of eight service
centres in the UK which deal with
all types and makes of tooling, saws,
routers, diamond and bandsaws.
Leitz takes the long-term view,
and as such, companies using Leitz
tools are already ahead of the game
and enjoying many advantages.
Through quality and consistency of
service, Leitz can actually reduce tool usage and increase productivity. In
many cases, life expectancy monitoring, balancing and rechecking is included
in the price of the product.
Sales manager, Brian Maddox, said: “Our customers enjoy a staggering
range of benefits which come with the purchase of our products, from
tools which are safety tested, training and seminars to reduced running
costs; benefits which often mean increased productivity for our customers.
The fact is that we regularly hear from customers who have chosen
to purchase ‘cheaper’ tools, and ended paying many times the cost in
terms of machine down time, lost productivity, increased second op costs
and high scrap rates.”
Within the Leitz range, there are different qualities depending on the
customer’s needs and expectations. The technical sales team helps advise
customers on the most efficient solution to their machining and production
processes.
The company holds customer specific seminars at its UK head office in
Left to right: Derek Statham (UK service and works manager), Simon Liddell (managing
director) and Brian Maddox (UK sales manager).
Harlow, as well as industry specific seminars with selected seminars with
selected partners, nationally. This often allows the customer base access
to additional knowledge data to help enable them to make informed decisions
to increase their respective efficiencies in their markets.
Mr Maddox continued, “The last few years have been difficult across
all industries, and we have been working with many companies who
were interested in efficiency. Now the market is growing again, this has
paid them real dividends. We have many other case studies where customers
were changing tools every shift, now once per week. Other areas
where we have introduced new technology such as our MC33 coated
tools. Better surface finishes, higher cutting speeds, more components
produced per hour and lower tooling cost per component. To summarise,
the last five years have been used to prepare for the future.”
In addition to the weekly tooling seminars, Leitz’s new factory and production
line tooling audits are in great demand. With changes to European
standards, manufacturers need to be confident their tooling meets
the latest legal and safety requirements. Mr Maddox
said, “Our customer factory audits are free of charge,
and one advantage over a visit from the Health &
Safety Executive is that we can also advise on changes
optimising tool feeds and speeds, which can help increase
productivity and even energy efficiency.”
Leitz Tooling UK
Tel 01279 454530
Email salesuk@leitz.org
http://shopuk.leitz.org
Panel, Wood & Solid Surface December 2013/January 2014 Page 13