Doctorate for Brandauer CEO

always keep innovation at the heart of everything they do.” recognition. I hope that it inspires all new graduating engineers into a career in UK manufacturing - and especially consider the unlimited possibilities of working at a small to medium sized enterprise.

“Thank you to BCU and I hope it’s students and graduates

Under Rowan’s leadership, Brandauer has implemented a bespoke apprenticeship programme that currently accounts for 15% of the firm’s workforce, whist advocating for communication, technicality, and entrepreneurship as the core foundations of employability of all graduating engineers.

The company has recently partnered with In-Comm Training on a £1m new Precision Tooling Academy in Aldridge to help reverse the critical skills drain being seen in toolmaking in the UK. 8 brandauer.co.uk

Wallwork Group is setting up a £10 million Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) centre at its Bury, North Manchester site. Housed in a newly prepared 2500 square metre facility, the first of the new HIP units is expected to be fully operational this month.

“As the UK’s premier independent heat treatment, vacuum brazing and advanced ultra-hard coatings company, this is a significant expansion of Wallwork’s thermal processing services and is part of a commitment to invest £20 million over the next five years. It cements our position as the UK one-stop shop for component manufacturers. All secondary processes are easily accessible on

The latest Contract Manufacturing Index (CMI) shows that the UK subcontract manufacturing market dropped back by over a third in the second quarter of 2023 following a strong start to the year.

A very slow quarter dashed hopes that the market was overcoming the effects of supply chain uncertainty and rising costs. The market was 24% lower than it was a year ago.

The biggest hit came in fabrication work, which was down 52% on the previous quarter.

Commenting on the figures, Qimtek owner Karl Wigart said: “It was not a good quarter at all and rather a dampener