Superite Tools was founded in 1955 by the late Alan Collins, Alan had an engineering background having completed his apprenticeship with Crabtree’s engineering in Walsall, he then went on to become a petty officer in the Royal Navy.
Upon Alan’s return from the Navy he had broadened his horizons, coupled with a small loan, he had a recipe for success. He applied what he had learnt and set up Superite Tools in his garage at home.
Superite grew, both in size and stature, Alan moved to industrial premises and took on both of his sons to work for him.
Alan was at the helm until his retirement in 1991, though he took the decision to slow down his commitment to the business he never did, and he kept his finger on the pulse for many years.
Family has always been the centre and driving force behind the business, Alan’s sons Mike and Martin worked side by side to run it until Mike’s well-deserved retirement in 2014.
Today Superite Tools celebrate 65 years of family business with Martin as director, with his daughter Jessica and his son William both now working alongside him.
Martin tells us that he is very proud of his father before him, his brother beside him and the fantastic team of staff behind him. He credits his dedicated managers, Steve Taylor (who has been with Superite Tools for 55 years, who started as a shop floor apprentice aged 16, and Craig Dingle, general manager who also started on the tools 27 years ago, also Adrian Brown, technical manager, who has been with us 4 years.
When asked about the success of Superite Tools Martin tells us “it hasn’t all been smooth sailing, but we’ve never given up, in times where we could have bemoaned to the pressures of globalisation, we’ve adapted”
As a team we didn’t want to just survive, we wanted to thrive so that’s our common goal and what we all work for.
Rather than being pushed out of the market by China we moulded ourselves around them (excuse the pun!) we decided that we could find our new niche in modification and repairs. There were too many tears and too much blood & sweat that had gone into Superite Tools to close the book, we just had to start a new chapter.
“We can’t change the world we can only choose how we respond to it”