Black Country wire firm lands 150,000th order as it celebrates 80 years

The UK’s leading manufacturer of precision drawn round, flat and profile wire is marking eight decades in style after hitting a major production milestone.

Alloy Wire International, which employs 29 people at its modern factory in the Black Country, has just secured its 150,000th order to supply exotic alloys to a customer involved in the nuclear sector.

It will mark the achievement and eight decades of manufacturing on November 7 when it hosts a special dinner with colleagues, international agents and business partners at Hogarths Stone Manor hotel in Kidderminster.

Tom Mander, managing director of AWI, said: “It doesn’t seem five minutes since we were celebrating our 75th. Time really does fly when you’re having fun.

“To reach this major milestone in our anniversary year is fantastic and testament to the outstanding team we have in the Black Country and across our 35 international agents, who help us generate more than £8m of export sales every year.”

He continued: “Our celebration event in November will bring together a host of influential figures of the past and the present to share stories of their time at AWI, including Bill

Graham who played such a massive role in the development of the business and our culture for more than 50 years.

“The last decade has certainly been eventful. We’ve had to overcome Brexit and the pandemic, but throughout all of this we’ve managed to ensure we continue to supply our international customer base with world class material in just three weeks - thanks mainly to our founding principles of ‘manufacturing quality, delivering reliability’.”

Alloy Wire International was founded in 1946 by John Stockdale in an old ambulance station in Old Hill in the Black Country.

Today, it is located in over 28,000 sq ft of manufacturing space in Brierley Hill, where it produces 60 exotic alloys every year to thousands of customers across 12 different sectors and 55 different countries.

More than £1.3m has been recently invested in creating additional capacity and in purchasing new equipment that allows the firm to maintain its industry-leading three-week delivery commitment.

The latest example is a new single-hole drawing machine, which upgrades its capability to take wire from 1.00 mm down to 0.25 mm, whilst plans are in place to install a new strand annealing furnace and state-of-the-art straightening and cutting machine.

Mark Venables, chairman of AWI, added: “I am genuinely proud and honoured to be part of the Alloy Wire International story.

“Personally, I have been in the manufacturing business 46 years, 16 of which have been spent as managing director and now chairman of AWI.

“The company really is special - the employees, the culture, the product, the teamwork, the loyalty and our sales agents across the world who all buy into our DNA, which is ultimately giving the customer the best quality wire we can.

“I must also mention Bill Graham, Paul Wiltshire and Martin Cobb, who managed and owned the company for many years before I took over. A lot of what they taught me has been passed on to the current management team of Tom Mander, Adam Shaw and Andrew duPlessis and this is helping them take the company to the next level.”

Bill Graham, who joined Alloy Wire in 1972 and took full control of the business in 1991, went on to add: “When I engineered the original MBO from the listed parent company, I wanted to create a unique working environment where every member of staff owned a part of the business.

“We ensured the daily performance figures for the company were clearly displayed in the factory, with any resulting monthly bonus being divided equally across all employees. That collective spirit and ‘the figures’ are still there today and I’ve no doubt it’s one of the ingredients that has made AWI such a unique manufacturing success story.

“Here’s to the next 80 years of achievement and putting the Black Country on the international map.”

Alloy Wire International continues to support local communities and charities through its Wired for Good campaign, first launched in 2021.

In the following five years, the company has made nine donations, worth over £75,000, to causes including Acorn’s Children’s Hospice, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Guide Dogs for the Blind and Tough Enough to Care.