A MANUFACTURING company is forging ahead on the world stage by doubling its turnover in three years.

Barton Cold-Form Ltd makes specialist cold-forged components such as fasteners, rivets, bolts and nuts for the automotive, construction, DIY, security and marine industries.

At a time when many manufacturers have their backs to the wall, the Droitwich firm's turnover has increased from £3.5m to £6.8m since 2000.

It has done this through investing in new equipment and expanding its product portfolio, with more than £2m of capital investment in new equipment in the past two years.

State of mind

Paul Denning, managing director of the Kidderminster Road firm, said recession was a "state of mind".

"You can talk yourself into being in the doldrums but at the end of the day you have to get out there - go to the customers and if that means going all round the world, that's what you do.

"If there's a recession coming, don't baton down the hatches - get out there, employ sales staff and give customers more than they're expecting."

Barton Cold-Form exports all over the world, including China, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, France and Germany.

It has recently installed a state-of-the-art, multi-die cold heading machine that has made the production process more efficient.

The £850,000 machine is the only one of its size in the country and can produce 180 pieces a minute.

"It's huge - a monster," said Mr Denning, who overseas a 100-strong workforce.

"It's taken us into the realms of companies we were previously not even speaking to, such as General Motors, Triumph Motorcycles and Powertrain, the engine building arm of MG Rover.

"It's so fast people will come and talk to us automatically."

The company, which was established in an old chapel, in Birmingham, in 1932 - moving to Droitwich in 1959 - has also gone into the production of prototypes.

"It gets us involved in companies' engineering departments much earlier in the process. This allows our engineers to talk to customers about other products, leading to more business.

"As long as you invest in the right equipment, and the right people, you'll be successful."