Following the collapse of RYE CMS late last year, a new company, called CMS Group (UK) Ltd, based in Nottingham has been set up to continue the supply of Brembanas in the UK.

The move follows the amalgamation of the CMS Group of Italy into the organisation of fellow Italians the SCM Group last summer. SCM boasted at the time of worldwide sales of £450million, 2,000 employees and 12 factories.

They say SCM and CMS will continue to trade independently in the UK and CMS Group (UK) Ltd will market the full CMS range of wood, stone and 'advanced materials' (glass, aluminium and plastic) machines produced by CMS.

CMS say they have decided to invest heavily in the important and expanding UK market and that CMS Group (UK) Ltd will honour all existing contracts and agreements with UK customers and prospects.

CMS had bought a 45% stake in UK competitors Rye Technology in High Wycombe in 2001. Rye Technology's name was changed to RYE CMS, through which CMS Brembana CNC stone milling and routing machines started to be distributed exclusively from January last year.

Rye had made CNC machines for processing wood, aluminium and plastic. The ranges of the two companies were rationalised and manufacture was moved to Italy.

Before RYE CMS started distributing Brembanas exclusively, the machines had been sold in the UK by A J Lopez and, more recently, Pisani.

Phillip Haith, who had a successful record selling Brembanas in the USA, was recruited by Pisani to sell the machines in Britain. He moved on to RYE CMS when they took over the distribution of Brembanas and is now the stone division manager of CMS Group (UK).

He says the new company has an order book of £1.2million, including the first stone working machine, which has gone to Ivett & Reed in Cambridge.

With Phillip Haith in the management team of CMS Group (UK) Ltd are Toni Nagiel, general manager, Graeme Cartwright, sales manager, and Alan Jackson, service and spares. A group of eight service and application engineers join the line-up.

Phillip Haith says: "As we are a 100% factory-owned subsidiary the buck stops here. We are able to offer an even higher level of support than before due to the on-going communication with our factory in Italy."