Company History
Timeline
- Founded in 2005 under the name ‘RP Tooling’ by Darren Withers and Brett Mitchell
- Previously they were directors at a local toolmaking company
- RP Tooling was based in a 1500 sq ft unit in Cradley Heath
- The company started with 2 Hurco CNC machining centres, 1 toolmaker, 1 bench hand. Jane and Lisa managed finance and administration
- By 2008 we extended into the unit next door, adding another 1100 sq ft to the size of the premises. With this additional space, the company added a dedicated CAD room with 4 CAD engineers, a sales engineer and a CMM machine
- By the end of the year, we had employed 9 toolmakers and had 7 CNC machining centres, plus a suite of manual millers
- By 2010, RP had expanded to such an extent that it had to move premises altogether. Relocating to Halesowen, we purchased our first plastic moulding machine, and produced prototype moulded parts in small batches
- Over the next couple of years, RP added another 7 toolmakers, including a toolmaking apprentice and a Quality Engineer. We also added more machinery, including a 5-axis machining centre
- The moulding facility quickly progressed. By 2012, the decision was made to separate this side of the business from the tooling, and so RP Mouldings was formed
- New premises of 1600 sq ft were acquired to accommodate the moulding operations and a General Manager was hired. 2 new Borche moulding machines were purchased, followed by a 60 Ton machine. New staff were also recruited
- In 2014, the company moved to its current 25,000 sq. ft. production facility in Kingswinford, where it continues to expand its team and operations to this day. The company also rebranded at this point, and became known as RP Technologies Ltd
- In 2022, RP made significant investment in state-of-the-art machinery in both its CNC Tool Room and its Quality Engineering department.
