One company that will not be exhibiting at Marmomacc in Verona is Britain’s own stone machinery manufacturer, Wells Wellcut. Although the company has sold one of its saws to Estonia this year, it does not want to be building machines for export because it has had to pull out all the stops to meet demand in the UK.
Luke Wells, who runs the business with a bit of help from his father, John, has taken on two extra engineers to build the machines (there are now nine of them in the factory) and has a factory extension watertight, although it still has to have electricity connected before it can be used.
Delivery time for the Wells machines is now 10-12 weeks, but Luke is managing to “keep a lid on it”, says John.
Latest from Wells are a ‘Silent Tumbler’, a wire saw, a three-bladed gantry saw and a PLC-run vertical lift saw for step cutting granite and slate, the first of which is currently under construction.
The Tumbler was added to the range after a customer had asked for a quieter machine to keep neighbours happy. Wells made one lined with Linatec that has metal fins protruding to tumble the stones. The company says the decibel level is less than half that of a tumbler with an all metal drum.
Most of Wells’ products come from solving a problem brought to them by a customer. The three-bladed 1200mm gantry saw was another example.
About 18 months ago, and for the first time, Wells started supplying machines it does not make at its own factory in an effort to control delivery times that had stretched out to 22 weeks. It reached an agreement with a family firm in Portugal with which it felt an affinity. Croppers were first on the scene, and eight of them have been sold so far this year. Now Wells is also selling wire saws from the Portuguese company and already has several installed in the UK.
The imports have taken some of the pressure off the Wells factory, which is probably just as well as orders for the company’s saws this year have even exceeded last year’s record levels, says John Wells.
You can see the whole Wells range on its newly up-dated, mobile-friendly website – just search for Wells Wellcut.