Small and medium size enterprises are a major part of the UK economy. Husband and Wife team, Phil and Mary Alexander operated a small electroplating company in the period 1995 to 2006, in Farnborough,  Hampshire, UK. The business provided metal finishing services for sheet metal and precision engineering companies. Finishes included zinc, anodising, Alochrom, chemical blacking, bright nickel and bright copper. This is their story of a small electroplating company.

When the building was first new it was quite a prestigious facility and was not difficult to access. As time passed the centre of Birmingham became more of a disadvantage than a benefit and it was felt that new premises should be sought. Helen came across a detached office unit, in a dedicated courtyard on the edge of Coleshill industrial estate in Warwickshire. We now have the benefit of an excellent Board Room, plus an “Education room” which will be used for both tutoring, training courses and examinations.In addition there is a small conference room which can be used for committee meetings, the facility for a properly accessible library and an IMF “museum” detailing our past!

The whole offices are double glazed and fully air-conditioned and so we look forward to putting together an open day to welcome all our members to the new facility.

Our new address is: 

New Exeter House, 2, The Courtyard, Roman Way, Coleshill, Warwickshire, B46 1HQ

Telephone: 0121 622 7387

We are looking at trying something new in 2024. Prior to COVID, the Southern Branch of the IMF used to hold seminars at varying venues around the Southampton/Portsmouth area and invite people to attend and listen to speakers talking about interesting subjects.
Since COVID and also due to the lack of time available for attendees, these seminars have been conducted via ZOOM or the use of alternative platforms. 
Now we would like to revisit the idea of face to face seminars but utilise New Exeter House (based in Coleshill) as the venue.
What we are proposing is that we open up New Exeter House for an evening seminar which could then either be attended in person OR via a ZOOM link. This would give the opportunity of allowing people from all over the country to come and see us in person at Exeter House or if distance is too much then watch the seminar via the ZOOM link.

Face to Face meetings give people much more opportunity to open up discussions and also to see what New Exeter House has to offer.
If you think that this is something that you may be interested in then please let us know by emailing:
helen@materialsfinishing.org or Johnburgess@materialsfinishing.org

This is “YOUR IMF” so why not come and join us and be a part of it.