Guttridge Ltd - an engineering success story
One man’s inventive thinking turned a Lincolnshire company from a pioneering animal feed mill manufacturer into an engineering success story that now employs over 100 people and supplies top quality bulk handling equipment worldwide.
Founded in 1962 by the late Dr David Guttridge, Spalding-based Guttridge Ltd delivers well-engineered, reliable materials handling solutions for everything from grain and sugar to cement.
Today the family-owned company supplies single machines up to fully integrated handling solutions, manufactured in both stainless and mild steel, across the UK, while its equipment is used in the Middle East, Africa and Russia.
Along with off-the-shelf equipment from bucket elevators to screw feeders and belt conveyors, Guttridge’s strength is using its engineering and manufacturing excellence to design and build bespoke solutions.
It started more than half a century ago when animal nutritionist Dr Guttridge recognised the commercial opportunity for using mobile mills to mix animal feed on farm, using the farmer's home grown cereals and straw, saving time and money.
After making the first two units, people started asking for their own machines, so he created an engineering workshop and a business was born.
When the forward-thinking Dr Guttridge saw that the writing was on the wall for that industry, he moved into bulk handling equipment. From making 200 machines and turning over around £2,000 in that first year, today turnover is £12m a year.
But the company continues to innovate.
“Guttridge has just supplied 60 biomass handling machines for Drax Power Station, and helped a small farmer struggling to make agriculture pay by delivering a handling solution to convert his farm to bio mass wood chip production, which has turned his business around. ”