Five new faces at Kuka's UK facilities

Kuka has opened a new 2260 sq-ft factory near its headquarters in Hereward Rise, Halesowen, in order to meet the huge growth in demand for robots, especially from the aerospace industry.

Among the new faces at the established supplier of industrial robots and automated production systems are Richard Goodwin (far left in photo), who has joined as a robot sales specialist, and Jane Thompson (second from left), the company's new sales and marketing co-ordinator.

Richard, who lives in Shifnal and has been involved in selling bespoke capital equipment and tooling for 17 years, will be responsible for sales in the automotive, machine tool and foundry sectors. Jane, from Halesowen, has a degree in corporate communications and brings extensive marketing experience to her new role. She previously worked in the marketing department at Birmingham-based pub operator Mitchells and Butlers.

Alan Oakley (centre of photo), from Shrewsbury, has moved from his position as training manager to take up the new role of applications engineer, providing technical support to the UK sales team. He has more than two decades' experience in the robotics industry. Robot engineer Kevin Amos (far right in photo), of Halesowen, is Kuka's new training manager. He has worked in the automation industry for 14 years, with the last eight years being in a training role.

Completing the team is European studies graduate Melanie Kirchoff (second from right in photo) who is working on UK sales and marketing projects as part of Kuka's international internship programme. Melanie is gaining valuable work experience before returning to Germany in the autumn.

Kuka Automation + Robotics supplies a comprehensive range of robots with payload capacities from 3–1000kg. Further details are available online via its website.