2008 - A Record Year for Microdat

With the year-end completed ready for auditing, Microdat has seen it’s sales rocket by 81.5% in 2008 to £3.6 million.   The main reasons were, within the year, we successfully completed a £2 million UK brewery project and a £550k bespoke sink moulding machine project with Univer/Jacuzzi.  2008 also saw a rise in sales for our Service section and M Projects (our process consultancy division).

Profits were also healthy and have been retained within the business for future growth and expansion.  Fixed assets were up overall by 33.9% to £742,921 with principal assets being acquired the Tornado 3 axis CNC Lathe, Orbitec orbital welder and a new TCM fork lift truck.  There was also a major refit within our Leeds factory to cope with volume production required to fulfil our order book.  Staff levels grew by 11 during 2008 to 33 in total; significant and strategic growth was implemented in our systems department with 2 electricians and a software designer added to existing staff; the benefits of this strategy are being realised almost immediately with far less reliance on contractors giving us a financial saving, improving lead times and greater control & adaptability.

Steve Midgley, Managing Director says ‘Microdat has always been in this for the long term and I have made sure the key investments were put in place to fulfil our ambitions.  Our customers and potential customers have seen continued investment in both state of the art manufacturing equipment and the staff from our 3D modelling design department to precision engineering in the workshop turning ideas into reality swiftly.  They can see the core infrastructure is there and this gives them the confidence to award major machine building contracts to Microdat and (without a reliance on contractors) we have the confidence to accept and fulfil these contracts.’  We now have our sights firmly set on export markets and our continued diversification into non-brewery markets so, rather than rest on our laurels with a good job well done, we will use our 2008 success as a spring board to grow our business, markets and profits in the future.