AboutMini Gears (stockport) Ltd
A leading subcontract manufacturer of Precision Machined Parts, Gears and Racks
Offering you a Competitive Advantage
As every component that we manufacture for you is an integral part of your product, it is important to us that we provide you with a combined package of quality, delivery, value for money and service.
At the heart of Mini Gears is our vision and innovative approach to manufacturing our customers’ components and we are well renowned for our input into design and cost saving ideas that give you a competitive advantage.
The Mini Gears Team
Who we are and what we manufacture
Mini Gears is a privately owned subcontract engineering company based in Stockport, near Manchester, supplying to a wide range of industries on a global basis. We have a large a 35,000 sq.ft. (3252m2) factory and over 100 machines and 90 staff dedicated to machining our customers’ components.
Traditionally a specialist gear manufacturing company we have expanded our machining capabilities to diversify into new high end markets and now, in addition to commercial gears and racks we manufacture many types of high precision machined components and high quality gears.
Specialist Machining
Awards for machining, innovation and supply chain partnerships
Continual investment in hi-tech machine tools and training, working with our customers and always looking for new ways of doing things with a friendly go-ahead approach has resulted in 17 major industry awards for machining excellence, supply chain partnerships and innovation.
We were delighted to be double winners at the 2014 MWP Awards in categories: Best Subcontractor – Machining and Best Supply Chain Partner.
Double Winners at MWP Awards
Delivery Methods, Reliability and why we visit all our customers
We consider that face to face contact is important as we get a real feel for your business and what you may need from us in the future to help you achieve your goals. This in turn helps us plan what training and investment we need to make. Our customers are based in the UK, mainland Europe, Australia and the USA so we do quite a lot of travelling!
Most of our UK customers require Kanban deliveries on larger volume contracts. To ensure our exact delivery time and timely replenishment, we have invested in a large delivery wagon and this enables us to bring back the empty trays for renewal, eliminating problems using independent transport.
Mini Gears wagon and 35,000 sq. ft. factory
How the company began in 1966
The need to change to meet current commercial markets, which makes Mini Gears what it is today, is the very reason the company exists and how it got its name.
Reg Darwent (co- founder) had served his apprenticeship in engineering and specialised in gear cutting. He was a partner in a company supplying spare parts for textile machinery that was trying to manufacture small precision gears alongside ‘rough and ready’ ones and it was just not working.
Realising that there was a growing market for small gears as other industries such as packaging equipment were now requiring much smaller gearboxes, Reg needed to move the manufacture of small gears into its own area.
Starting with 2 machines, a Myford and a Barber Colman, the separate manufacture began. It proved to be successful and grew so large that it now needed its own premises and its own name. ‘What are you going to call this company?’ Reg was asked. It was 1966; the Mini Cooper car had been launched and the new fashion was the Mini Skirt, all the gears were small and so the company was named ‘Mini Gears’.
