Planning for the future

Nicolas Stein joined in December as the new sales director. Formerly he ran his own company providing varied, technical support for food processing equipment including vision systems. Our former sales director Simon Wrighton tragically passed away last year after 25-years with the company. Nicolas, who received an MBA from the University of Warwick in January, says: “I am thrilled to have joined a company with such an impeccable reputation and long standing history as Arburg. I look forward to working with all my colleagues in Warwick and worldwide, and I would like to thank everyone for welcoming me into the Arburg family. He added, “Over the coming weeks and months, I will make it a priority to visit and meet as many of our customers as I can and I look forward to promoting our equipment and digital innovations in the UK and Ireland.”

Service Manager Robin Hambrook formally will retire by the end of this year having been with the company for 45 years. He was the agent for Arburg, Hahn & Kolb prior to the ARBURG subsidiary being set up in 1992.  
Robin joined Hahn & Kolb in 1978 and has seen numerous changes in the business and the injection moulding industry in the last four decades. “When I joined, Arburg had just introduced the world’s first microprocessor IMM, that ran on 3k of memory, using the “Hydronica” control system,” Robin says. “The machines are far more advanced and more precise now of course, but technology still presents problems to solve – just a different type to those in the 1980s!” Robin reached retirement age last year but part of his decision to delay to 2023 was to be present for the 100-year Hehl family anniversary.
Robin commented, “My thanks to the Hehl family, who have been the one constant in my 45-years at Arburg. Thank you for the opportunity to belong to the ARBURG family for so long, from the second generation up to the fourth generation today. I’m pleased to have been a part of your story.”

Alex Gall, who has been with Arburg for 12-years, takes over from Robin as Service Manager. Alex says, “I am delighted to have been given this opportunity to further my career as Service Manager at Arburg Ltd. The role brings on new responsibilities and challenges, all of which I am looking forward to. My role in the company has changed a lot, from being on the road to now being more office based. Visiting customers in the future will be very different to how it has been over the last 12 years. I have been shadowing Robin Hambrook up until his retirement, and I will be pulling on his nearly 45-years’ experience to make the transition as smooth as possible.”
Stuart Spicer joined Arburg in 2022 as Central Area Sales Engineer and replaces Roger Cox, who retired in November after 33 years with the company. Stuart’s main experience is in process engineering of thermoplastics, and in his previous job he was operations director of a factory with about 40 employees with annual revenues of c. £6m. 
“I am very proud to be part of a company that is focussed, first and foremost, on supporting our customers. From my side it’s about utilising my skill-sets to promote the best solutions to our customers from the incredibly broad range of equipment we offer,” Stuart commented.
“I admire the enormous levels of investment support and industry foresight at Arburg, coupled with the genuine family feel of the company. It’s refreshing to see proven experience working in tune with youth and innovation with a forward thinking attitude.”
Gavin John transferred from an engineering role into automation in September last year, and is now Arburg Ltd.’s Automation and Digital Project Engineer. "Having the opportunity to work in the automation sector is a dream come true and it has allowed my career to progress further. I am very passionate and have a lot of interest in automation solutions," Gavin says. The role is becoming increasingly important as more companies investigate automation solutions as the need to increase productivity becomes greater, with rising input costs.

In addition to these senior positions, Arburg Ltd. has recruited two additional apprentices this year, making three apprentices in total: Vincent Marimanzi and Thomas Ward join Joe McKenna to begin their journey learning about the injection moulding industry. Further to this, we have also invested in two young recruits to focus on calibration and service specifically. Matthew Griffiths and Harvey Young were appointed as trainee calibration and service engineers in December and are completing 12-weeks’ beginners’ training in Lossburg.
All ARBURG service technicians worldwide must complete a 12-week induction course in Germany.
“Change is a constant, but we have seen a lot of change in the last 12-months and we say goodbye to some colleagues who have given amazing service to Arburg,” says managing director Colin Tirel, himself approaching 25-years’ service.
“A big thank you from me personally to Robin and Roger for all their hard work for Arburg; our best wishes for your hard-earned retirements – enjoy the rest! We are all devastated to lose Simon last year after a brave battle with cancer, his contribution to the company and customer base was immeasurable.  We are delighted to welcome Nicolas to fill this essential role; I’m confident he has the right attributes and he has made an excellent start. Well done to Alex, Gavin, and Stuart for taking on their new jobs, earned on merit, and I am really pleased to welcome Vince, Thomas, Matthew and Harvey. This shows Arburg invests in the future, and their ideas and energy will help us greatly and keep our brand young and forward-thinking.
Colin added, “We are continuing to build a very strong team now that can give our customers, established and new, a 6-star professional service from people who know the products and systems technically and have high standards. We all look forward to working with you.”