Innovation drive helps Brandauer claim Medium Business of the Year at the Masters

One of the UK’s best kept manufacturing secrets has been named as the Medium Business of the Year at the Business Desk Masters Awards last night.

Brandauer, which produces millions of high tolerance metal pressings and stampings every week for customers in 25 different countries, beat off competition from across the region to claim the prestigious prize in front of 250 people in Birmingham.

The company was praised by judges for the way it diversified during the pandemic, creating its largest ever innovation project that has seen it become the lamination expert of choice for companies involved in electrification.

It’s an approach that has already delivered £1m of sales and seen it work closely with Jaguar Land Rover, Ricardo and Saietta on Government-funded projects.

Stuart Berry, Manufacturing Director at Brandauer, picked up the award: “The pandemic was tough for everyone, but it did give us time to consider the future and where we wanted to take the business.

“We had growing expertise in creating wafer thin laminations and wanted to innovate the bonding process so we could offer ‘stacks’ used in motors and stators in electric drivetrains. This has been achieved and we are now able to commercialise this in the UK and overseas.”

He continued: “The Business Desk Masters Award, which was sponsored by Azets, is a major honour for our company and underlines that SMEs can innovate their way out of difficult circumstances. A big thank you to all 69 staff, this prize is for you and your hard work, commitment and passion for UK manufacturing.”

Brandauer has increased its workforce by 20% and successfully secured more than £1m of lamination work as a direct result of the transformation project.

This includes rotor/stators for a tier 1 Slovenian automotive supplier of HVAC systems and a global tier one, the latter using them in a new $3m Supercar.

The final contract success is a £250,000 deal, which uses its in-house bonded stack capability to drive the motors in the next generation of military reconnaissance drones.