William Cook Group Drives Supply Chain Resilience With Metalshub

Dusseldorf, August 4, 2022 – The Sheffield-based William Cook group has introduced the supply chain solution of German software company Metalshub. The tool brings the purchasing activities of the group onto a digital platform, driving supply chain resilience and transparency in the procurement value chain.

William Cook manufactures components and systems for applications where safety and reliability are critical. These include high-specification steel castings for the nuclear industry, bogies and couplers for high-speed trains, and tracks for the tanks of the British Army and its allies.

William Cook operates four factories across the North of England, located in Stanhope, Leeds, Sheffield and Ashton-under-Lyne. Norman Lewins, Group Purchasing Manager at William Cook, says: “Bringing in Metalshub gave us the visibility we needed and helped us to make more strategic purchases. On a group level, it also enabled us to create a central purchasing unit.” With Metalshub, the group introduced a tool to drive transparency for all of its enquiries, offers, and negotiations, further harmonising operational procurement activities at each site.

In the first six months, William Cook has benefited from cost savings in its raw material procurement and discovered plenty of new suppliers. “In these times of unprecedented disruptions in the raw material industry, it is important to broaden our supplier base,” adds Norman Lewins. “Apart from having an efficient tool to manage our procurement, we could find new suppliers on Metalshub, which drives our supply chain resilience.”

“It is great to see how William Cook has benefited from our solution over the first six months. We understand that sectors such as energy, defence and rail have very specific requirements. We are glad that Metalshub fulfils these requirements while providing cost savings and contributing to a more future-proof organisation. Realising a positive return on investment in such a short timeframe is a testament to the hard work of a forward-looking and digital procurement team. We are looking forward to the fruitful collaboration with William Cook for many years to come”, says Chief Sales Officer at Metalshub, Robin Haeberle.

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The William Cook group is a British steel company headquartered in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is the UK’s largest manufacturer of steel castings. William Cook companies design, manufacture and overhaul components and systems for applications where safety and reliability are critical. For nearly two centuries William Cook’s core competence has been casting steel. Today, most of William Cook’s components and systems for defence, rail and other industries still call for high-specification alloys and superalloys. William Cook’s three main divisions, employing 500 people, generate revenues of £60m per year.

Metalshub is one of the pioneers of digital transformation in the metals industry. The software start-up was founded in 2016 in Düsseldorf by Dr. Sebastian Kreft and Dr. Frank Jackel with the mission to connect companies in the industry with a digital platform. Digital supply chains can help reduce costs and CO2 emissions. More than 1,300 companies are already using Metalshub, including more than 300 steel mills and foundries that have digitised their procurement processes.