The Crosby Group, LLC, will celebrate a century of metal forging at Crosby Premier Stampings Ltd. in the heart of the UK’s Black Country in October.

Premier Stampings, a Crosby Group company, will host Crosby distributors, end users and other customers from all over the world at its Cradley Heath, West Midlands, facility on October 3, 2019. Celebrations will conclude at the nearby Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, where dinner will follow a heritage tour that will walk attendees through the story of one of the first industrialized landscapes in Britain.

Jason Colwell, managing director of Crosby Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said: “While the event celebrates 100 years of forging in a region steeped in history, we are equally using the occasion to mark a point in time from which to continue to shape the future. There will be an inevitable nostalgia about the day, but Crosby Premier Stampings will gather with its community to make a statement about achieving many more years of success, backed by ongoing investment, at the cutting edge of its trade.”

Today, the Premier Stampings facility spans 63,000 square feet and employs 80 people, who play a role in forging and machining lifting and rigging products that are shipped across the world. Significant investment, particularly over the last 15 years, has seen Premier Stampings become a complete, vertically integrated forging business, boasting state-of-the-art heat treatment, machining and testing products.

Anthony Thomas, general manager of Crosby Premier Stampings and a 30-year veteran of the company, said: “We are the last remaining volume-lifting component manufacturer in the UK. We can finish components from 0.1 to 55kg in gross weight from start to finish. We make products for operations where safety is a primary consideration and our customers recognise that we are offering a high quality, high value service from a region that has forging in its DNA.”

Among those already committed to attend the event are customers from Dubai, India, South Africa, mainland Europe and the UK, the majority of which represent the Crosby supply chain. Thomas confirmed that 90% of the company’s business relates to Crosby lifting and rigging hardware products, with remaining capacity filled by demand for engineered products for the local market.

He said: “We have UK-based distributors that have been with us for 40 years, since before we were part of the Crosby portfolio. Many of them will take a tour of our facility and the museum for the first time. It will be fascinating for them to note that actually forging hasn’t really changed that much over the years; what has evolved is the equipment and technology that we use. We have historical references to forging lifting components as far back as the 1930s at our original home in Masters Lane, Blackheath, for what was then a local B2B customer base. The world has changed a great deal since, but we’ve managed to thrive during many chapters of history and are very excited about forging the future.”

Robert Desel, Crosby CEO, said: “I am looking forward to celebrating the 100th year of Crosby Premier Stamping with our team members, customers, and the local community.  This plant, the people that work here and the products it manufactures are another example of Crosby's commitment to safety, innovation, and reliability supporting safe, effiective and efficient lifting at job sites, plants and rigs around the world.”