News Archives - Wye Cylinder

People and Technology working together

Posted on 12 January 202312 January 2023 by Emma Carter

We have been manufacturing hydraulic cylinders for over 50 years. The introduction of innovative machinery has dramatically changed our manufacturing process. We believe our success is due to people and technology working together.

We’ve invested around two million on the latest equipment and innovations in order to improve quality of output, increase productivity, improve customer delivery times and reduce waste.

However collaboration is at the heart of everything we do and is the central point for all our company values. Without collaboration of our team of skilled workers, our technology suppliers and their expertise, we would not succeed with technology alone. People and technology working together is key.

Read our full article, printed courtesy of the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce here.

WCE is growing thanks to Marches Growth Hub!

Posted on 10 November 202212 January 2023 by Emma Carter

WCE is growing thanks to Marches Growth hub, which enabled us to secure local funding support. This has helped WCE in making improvements to the productivity of the business, significantly reducing carbon savings and offering more job opportunities.

Last year we were lucky in being able to purchase a paint drying oven. WCE Secures Funding for Innovative Machinery – Wye Cylinder (wye-cylinder.co.uk) This was a huge success, enabling us to increase capacity and reduce energy costs. We were very grateful that once again, we could benefit from help from the Marches Growth hub.

We need people and technology working together for WCE to grow

WCE have been manufacturing hydraulic cylinders for over 50 years. We want to leave a legacy in UK manufacturing, highlighting that investing in modern technology doesn’t mean a reduction in the workforce, in fact the opposite. We need the expertise of our trained workforce! This technology compliments their skills in enabling us to upskill team members, increase our productivity and hence increase our workforce. This means we can ensure our customers receive high quality hydraulic cylinders, fit for their specific purpose, at a cost-effective price, delivered to their timescales. Our strategy is to give our people the right tools for the job.

WCE’s growth journey

We’re now in a position where 90% of our factory is both modern and reliable. There has been an amazing transformation over the past few years at WCE. Increased efficiencies, technology advancements, reducing waste and becoming more environmentally friendly have all been on the agenda. We have further investment planned for new machinery and continually strive to improve our manufacturing processes, products and customer service. We are excited to now take on the next stage of our growth development plans, so watch this space!

If you would like to learn more about how WCE is growing and our journey so far, just click the link below to view the video.

Wye Cylinder Engineering – The Marches Growth Hub helps business to thrive – YouTube

How it all began….over 50 years ago!

Posted on 16 October 202231 October 2022 by Dev

Our Story…

The origins of WCE can be traced back to the 1950s with its original owner and founder Mel Bayliss. Born in 1928, Mel had a passion for engineering and in particular, motorised travel. So much so, in 1959 Mel built his first “Fastakart” racing Kart, which was all the rage at the time!

Less than 10 years later, there was a turning point and Mel was asked to build his first hydraulic cylinder for one of his customers. By early 1969 Mel had manufactured his first farm tipping ‘ram’ and his new business was born.

Fast-forward to 1972 and Mel was joined in the business by his son Ken, who can be seen in the middle of the motorbike picture as a little boy in shorts! Ken completed his engineering training and by 1975 Ken was in charge of the entire Bromyard factory, at the young age of 25. By the time he was 36 Ken was running the company and taken the business to new heights.

To this day, WCE remains a family business producing high-quality hydraulic cylinders to a wide range of sectors including waste management and mining, but farming and agriculture remain at its core. At 50 years young our manufacturing process may have changed a lot, but our dedicated, experienced and knowledgeable staff are still key and our passion for engineering is still at our core.

WCE Secures Funding for Innovative Machinery

Posted on 15 October 202231 October 2022 by Dev

WCE Secures Funding for Innovative Machinery

Innovation is at the heart of what we do here at WCE and we are always looking into ways to improve our manufacturing process, products and customer service. We are constantly making improvements and one area we felt needed improvement was our paint drying process. Our current machinery was insufficient and meant we were losing value time and energy and it didn’t meet our high expectations, so we needed a solution to overcome this.

We had previously approached Marches Growth Hub, to obtain a BEEP Grant in 2019 which enabled us to invest in a new piece of machinery. This not only increased our productivity, but also accrued yearly energy cost savings and reduced almost 25 tonne of carbon a year.

Due to the previous success, it was natural for us to reach out once again, to see if any further support was available. Marches Growth Hub helped with a successful application and we received £20,000 grant from the Business Growth Programme (BGP2). This supported the purchase of our new £45,000 paint drying oven, from Unitech Engineering Ltd. This helped us achieve an increase in capacity and provide a better quality finished product to our customers.

Richard Williams, Managing Director comments

“We were extremely pleased to receive the grant, the addition of this new paint drying oven has enabled us to increase capacity by completing an extra 500 cylinders per week and has created two new full-time jobs. We are very proud of the high quality hydraulic cylinders that we design and manufacture, but this feels like another piece of the jigsaw and has enabled us to provide an even better end-to end service for our customers. We are extremely grateful to Marches Growth Hub and we look forward to working with them on future opportunities.”

For further details on Business Funding Opportunities contact Marches Growth Hub here