Schwer Fittings UK – A continuing home-grown success story

31 August, 2018

For nearly a quarter of a century, Schwer Fittings UK, based in Warrington in Cheshire, has continued to develop and innovate as a leading provider of stainless steel connection technology, offering a wide range of fittings including single and twin ferrule compression fittings, hose-end fittings, including interlock, (BSP, NPT, metric, & JIC), hydraulic adapters (BSP, NPT metric & JIC), screwed fittings and valves.

The company’s products are in demand among a wide range of industry sectors; from oil & gas and offshore to construction and civil engineering. Wolfgang Moellers, Schwer Fittings UK’s managing director since 1997, has been largely instrumental in the company’s growth, development and solid reputation within the fluid power and related equipment industry. Moellers made the decision to step down as MD at the end of 2017 due to ill health, although he plans to stay in close touch with the company and to serve in a consultancy capacity going forward.

With over two decades at the helm, Moellers looked back at the early years following the company’s formation and highlighted some of its milestones in terms of investment and growth. “Schwer Fittings UK was first founded as a subsidiary of the German parent company in 1994 and was initially tasked with manufacturing cutting rings for couplings. At that time, I was working as export officer for Schwer Fittings in Germany and was given the opportunity to visit the UK subsidiary from October 1996 to January 1997 in order to survey how it was progressing from a production and business standpoint, and to make suggestions as to how things could be improved. After a couple of additional visits during 1997 I grew increasingly attached to both the UK arm of the company and to the English way of life. After discussing my interest in Schwer Fittings UK with Bernd Schwer, founder and CEO of Schwer Fittings GmbH, he offered me the position of managing director. Who would have known at the time that my initial three-month stay would develop into 21 years of service?!”

Ideal career opportunity

Moellers explained that this was an ideal career opportunity, with the German parent company giving him a largely free rein to develop the Schwer Fittings UK into a leading provider of high-quality standard and custom products. “I realised early on that the market in the UK was quite different to that in Germany,” he said. “In Germany, our core customer based comprises end users, whereas in the UK it has been largely made up of dealerships and installation companies. This led us to develop a range of adapters, BSP fittings and a complete range of hydraulic hose fittings to best fit the requirements of this type of customer base. In fact, the hose fittings, which we first began manufacturing in 2005, gave us another boost business-wise. Over the years this product has developed into a very wide portfolio.”

Moellers explained that during these early years, Schwer Fittings UK relied on a small team of four people, but through ambitious product development and the building of a reliable business social network, things started to take off very quickly, with staff levels increasing to around 30 people by 2005, including manager Mandy Osborne, who joined the company in 2005.

Full traceability

Keen to offer full material certification, tracking and traceability of its products, Schwer Fittings acquired its own laser marking machine around this time. The machine allows the company to mark all items with its logo and a trace number. “This meant that all products manufactured were 100% traceable; right down to the raw materials and the mill they were sourced from,” explained Moellers. “I think that 100% traceability is quite unique in our market – many years after a product is made we can still trace which machine it was made on and find the assembly and test reports. Everything is thoroughly documented.”

Expansion

Because of the company’s continuing growth, Moellers and the team decided to expand Schwer Fittings UK’s existing premises and broke through the adjoining walls; essentially turning the site into one, more generously sized, building. “The additional space meant we could established a proper office structure within the company; with separate areas for sales and admin, as well as a rest area and a larger canteen,” explained Moellers. “We also invested heavily in quality control (Schwer holds many quality certificates including ISO 9001 & 14001, Lloyds, DNV, ABS and DVGW) and assembling and bending machines, as well as setting up special test rigs to allow us to undertake our own tests independently from Germany. The size of the warehouse area for holding stock is also much more extensive.”

Investment in a test bench and hose swaging machinery means Schwer can provide compatibility testing of hoses and fittings, and the training facilities are used for BFPA courses, available to individuals and companies. From a sales perspective, Schwer’s website continues to be developed; now offering product search, downloadable certificates and technical information. Paper catalogues are also available from the Warrington office.

New MD

The beginning of 2018 saw the appointment of Jane Cooper as Schwer Fittings UK’s new managing director. Cooper has worked for the company in various sales and admin roles for the past 17 years, having first joined at the age of 21. “Jane has a thorough knowledge of Schwer Fittings UK having been involved in all aspects of the business over the years, so I believe she will prove to be the perfect successor for me as MD,” said Moellers.

In terms of business and operational plans for the future, Cooper commented: “We have seen a positive start to 2018 and wish to continue to support our customers by expanding our current product ranges, in particular Twin Ferrule Fittings which are Schwer manufactured. The team in Warrington are working towards building on the foundations that Wolfgang put in place and are looking forward too many successful years to come. Over previous months we have seen an increase in demand and have looked at different ways to develop moving forward. Mandy Osborne who has been with the company for 12 years, now has a new role, operations manager. Mandy has a wealth of knowledge and experience in this area, and I feel this decision will assist the Schwer team with future development. In addition to our external sales representative Dave, we have also expanded our sales team to help with increasing demand and services. Late last year Schwer’s in house computer programme was installed, this has brought different possibilities to the way we work and allows us to see our stock levels worldwide.”

www.schwer.com