Connect with us:
Feature article
Branded bottles
Demand for aluminium bottles is increasing in the US. CanTech International editorial board member James Peterson, who works for Ball Corporation, discusses the reasons why
Joanne York, managing director, York Engineering Solutions
York Engineering Solutions offers the can making industry a new choice for service and support, by providing an engineering base of skilled specialists in many different aspects of the business.
As we are a service solutions company to the can making industry, we currently have within our team engineers specialising in cuppers, bodymakers, Belvac trimmers, Belvac neckers, Pressco high speed vision and centrifugal separators.
I spent 18 years working for Belvac Europe and during that time I was commercial manager for 10 years. The majority of my responsibilities involved scheduling service engineers. I also worked as ISO quality manager during my time at the company.
I was made redundant following the closure of Belvac Europe’s UK office and decided to set up my own business. I’m now working beside my business partner and commercial director Eric Hall, whose proven business and service experience within the can making industry for over 20 years, complements the York Engineering Solutions product.
I’ve got to know many people over the last 18 years and the majority of them are still speaking to me, which is great. Eric helped inspire me to set up this business. He reminded me of how many people I know in the can making business and how many people know me.
Someone recently said to me that once you work in the can making industry you stay in it. My father Alex Fieldwick worked for Metal Box for 39 years starting at the age of 15 when they had a large plant in Crawley. He began as an apprentice tool maker before working his way up to commercial manager. He has been very supportive and encouraged me to set up my own business.
Engineering
We use a number of independent engineers. Some of them, either Eric or myself have known for a long time and others we’ve worked with over the years. Others have been recommended to us. We use engineers based in the UK, US and Spain and cover all aspects of the can
making business.
Since forming York Engineering Solutions we have received requests from companies asking us to put together training, service and maintenance packages. We have been in discussion with engineers so that we can fine tune everything and get the right package for the customer.
We have had a tremendous amount of interest, more than either myself or Eric could ever have expected. We have quoted for work in the UK, Europe and Asia.
The best term to describe the company is a one-stop engineering specialist shop for can makers. A customer can contact us and inform us that they have a maintenance day scheduled and that they need a specialist engineer. If an engineer is available, we can we provide them with a quote. We are open and honest; unfortunately our engineers are not always available which is conveyed to the customer.
We aim to provide support for our customers as often as possible and understand one of the main reasons why people are coming to us is because they are losing faith with the big suppliers. We strive to provide a high level of customer service and our prices are competitive, as we believe it goes a long way to building and keeping a good relationship with the people we are speaking to on a daily basis.
The future
Going forward we’d like to be in a position where we have more engineers working with York Engineering Solutions. We are expanding the range of specialist services and we will be happy if we continue to grow steadily.
We’re already working with some of the world’s largest packaging companies which shows the level of support we have.
The amount of investment in the metal packaging industry shows it’s doing well even in this financial climate. Organisations do not invest if they don’t think there is going to be a return.
We have recently started receiving enquiries for spare parts and this is an area that we’re hoping to expand on. We would like to be seen as a friendly and approachable organisation and that our engineers take a great deal of pride in the work they do.
Email this page to a friend
Print this pagePopular articles
Sorry. No data so far.