Growing With Weinig JOHN CARNEY isn’t a man to mince words. He’s to the point, sharp, intuitive and has an overwhelming appetite for success. Yet, as our interview progresses, whilst it’s clear he is the driving force behind Cheshire Mouldings & Woodturnings Ltd., and he relishes the challenges that come with his position of Managing Director, I get the feeling he really doesn’t enjoy the limelight much. He deflects my questions, shifting attention to those who helped him along the route to success and stressing the partnerships he’s fostered. While most bosses in John’s position might gloat over the company’s achievements, he remains remarkably modest – despite conquering the giants of the DIY and independent merchants market, pushing turnover to just shy of £40million, and achieving recognition as one of the London Stock Exchange’s ‘Top 1000 Companies To Inspire’ no fewer than four times. That’s no mean feat for a company that was established in 1988 and didn’t even have a workshop to call its own when it started out. Much of that success John attributes to the strong partnership he’s developed with the Weinig Group and the advice, expertise and technology he has accessed through them over the years. “Weinig supplied me with my very first moulder over 30 years ago when I was working out of some old converted sea containers in Warrington,” recalls John proudly. Running alongside his father’s merchant business, John’s head for business was clear from a young age as he saw a gap in the market and began manufacturing stair spindles, newel posts, dado rails and architectural mouldings for the merchant trade. “I wanted my business to be a success and I knew if I was to be taken seriously, I needed to invest in good quality equipment. Weinig’s seven-headed Unimat 22 was the perfect fit for my business and our relationship has stood the test of time.” It was winning a Howden’s Joinery contract to supply stair parts in 1997 that sparked a shift in the company. “Back then, Howdens only had
Founder, John Carney with Jacquie Capper, National Sales Manager
27 branches - they now have over 700 - but this was big business for us,” admits John, who still remains one of the original suppliers to the nationwide joinery supplier. Within 10 years, the business had reached a turnover of £980,000 and the decision to move to bigger premises in St Helens meant a substantial additional investment in new machinery. “From the moment I started using Weinig’s machines, I knew it was a brand worth investing in. Their ongoing technical support and service packages are simple and effective and their customer service is second to none. In fact, our original Weinig salesman, David Hill, who has now retired, is still on hand to help us if we need him. You wouldn’t get that kind of service anywhere else. As a result, we don’t look anywhere else and our manufacturing site is filled with Weinig kit, including five moulders, BK band saws, a CNC router and a new finger jointing line.” As the business continued to grow year on year and multimillion pound contracts were confirmed with well-known DIY chains in 2012 and 2015, Weinig was challenged to put the necessary infrastructure in place to fulfil large-scale contracts that would inevitably see Cheshire Mouldings increase its turnover from £17 million to £26 million in one year alone – an impressive figure for a business owner whose ultimate goal was to reach a turnover of £3 million before retirement age. The new machines not only needed to offer a continuously high level of accuracy and precision, they also needed to assist in de-skilling the production lines, reduce down-time and increase production. “In the months after winning one big contract, we invested in two new machines – a finger jointing line and a cross cut line – that we installed in a new, dedicated factory. There was never any doubt that we would use Weinig. By this point, they knew our business well and, more importantly, when dealing with a multimillion pound contract, we knew we could trust them to
The Weinig finger jointer producing defect free DIY lengths is essential to economic manufacture at Cheshire Autumn 2019
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create a solution that worked. We saw immediate results. The original finger jointing line required four men and produced 2,000 metres a day. The new line requires three men and produces 20,000 metres a day. These kind of figures excite me and wouldn’t have been achievable without Weinig’s help. “We have always looked to the future and Weinig are like-minded in that respect,” says John, who openly admits to favouring innovative companies that are fluid in their response to change. “We know what we want to achieve but that doesn’t mean we always know how to achieve it. Weinig are the experts – we’ve seen that first hand. They have the knowledge and understanding to make our vision a reality.” This approach has often seen Cheshire Mouldings taking the lead and becoming the first company to put Weinig’s latest technology to the test. They were among the first companies in the UK to install Weinig’s clever Power Lock system and the first company to buy a R1000 CNC grinder. “I still believe the R1000 was the best thing we’ve ever bought,” says John. “We make quads and dowels that go from 6-20mm but thanks to this Weinig grinder, we only need one person working in our tool room, even though they are grinding for five moulders. The accuracy is absolutely superb and the blending is perfect. Yes, it comes with a price tag but modernising our production in this way has helped us to put £20 million onto our turnover in the last five years and reduced our labour costs.” Automation is a key area of development for the Cheshire-based business and John’s constant hunger to push the boundaries of manufacturing and increase turnover is one of the reasons the Cheshire-based company has won a string of industry awards. “We might be close to reaching a £40 million turnover but how do we get it to £50 million? How do we take our business to the next level?”
The R1000 CNC grinder is the ‘beating heart’ of Cheshire Mouldings production