Growth Through Adversity for Gloucestershire Engineering Firm

Following a period of impressive growth through an uncertain climate, Stratos Precision Engineering Ltd are celebrating a number of key achievements as the go-to plastic and aluminium CNC machining specialists in the UK.

Established in 2012, Stratos is an ISO 9001:2015 accredited CNC engineering company based at Waterwells Business Park in Quedgeley, Gloucester, and has seen considerable growth through what has been a time of global uncertainty for many businesses. With two awards under its belt as a direct result of work with Rolls Royce Consortium led VentilatorChallengeUK during the start of the Coronavirus pandemic, Stratos has played a key part in business growth in the county through adversity.

Despite the obvious challenges that so many businesses have faced, Stratos remained operational, and the business is now seeing significant growth leading to a number of key organisational decisions and developments to further propel the business and contribute to the expansion of the economy.

Talking about the developments, one of the company’s founders and Managing Director, Jon Caple, explained,

“The last 18 months hasn’t been without its challenges of course, but we’re extremely fortunate to have worked through the pandemic and have so many customers that were understanding of our extra commitments as key workers. As businesses began to reopen, it became clear to us that we needed to expand and diversify if we were going to keep on track with our ambitious plans.

In the last year we’ve invested in excess of £200,000 into additional machinery, staff, infrastructure and software to galvanise and future-proof the business.”

Stratos Engineering has made a number of strategic investments since incorporation, the latest of which includes the installation of a 1000+ sqft mezzanine factory floor to create space for new top-of-the-range CNC machinery. A second Citizen CNC Sliding Head machine (L20 with LFV technology) allows for 7-axis precision machining from Ø3mm – Ø25mm, and a new Coordinate Measuring Machine, the Aberlink Axiom Too CMM, gives accurate 3D measurement and 0.1µm scale resolution; perfect for quality-critical parts such as those used in the medical sector. The addition of a new laser engraving machine with Lightburn® technology will also open up new routes to market and help Stratos to keep up with the growing demand for plastic and metal machined components in industries including motorsport, food and beverage, medical and electronics.

Jon added “These significant investments will also allow Stratos to better support local and national manufacturing businesses and help us to increase our market share. With our additional space and new ERP system, Emax, in place, we’re in an excellent position to position to offer stock-holding for our customers via blanket/call off orders, enabling them to receive components on a next day basis whilst not having to hold stock themselves. It means customers can save money by not having capital tied up in stock inventory. They will also benefit through cost reduction by ordering in bulk, with components being delivered in a timely fashion. This is key for fast-paced industries such as food and beverage, and medical, where timing can be critical, and we can only achieve all of this with the support & dedication of our fantastic team here at Stratos.”

This period of uncertainty has been challenging for so many businesses, but as we emerge from the wave of the global pandemic, it’s time to focus on recovery and economic growth within our County.

Stratos Precision Engineering is the UK’s plastic and aluminium CNC machining specialist, and strives to be the first choice for CNC milling, turning, routing, sliding head, and laser components.

To find out more about Stratos and the services available call 01452 840422, email sales@stratosengineering.co.uk, or click here.