Top 10 Best Hardware Manufacturers in North West Leicestershire

A Manufacturing District With Deep Roots

North West Leicestershire has made things for a very long time. Coal, clay and quarrying shaped the early industrial landscape, and the brickworks around Ibstock remain nationally significant. What is less widely appreciated is how that heritage evolved. As extractive industries contracted, the engineering skills, industrial premises and transport links they left behind supported a transition into precision manufacturing, electronics and specialist hardware.

Today the district hosts a varied manufacturing base: machined components, electronic assemblies, industrial control equipment, moulded plastics, construction products and bespoke machinery. The concentration of logistics infrastructure around the M1, A42 and East Midlands Airport gives these manufacturers unusually good access to customers across the United Kingdom and to export routes.

What Modern Hardware Manufacturing Involves

Contemporary manufacturing bears little resemblance to its reputation. Computer-controlled machining centres hold tolerances measured in microns, additive manufacturing produces prototypes and low-volume parts without tooling, and automated inspection verifies every unit rather than a sample. Production planning systems coordinate material, labour and machine capacity, and quality data is captured continuously rather than recorded on paper.

Electronics manufacturing in particular has become highly specialised. Surface-mount assembly lines place components at extraordinary speed, automated optical inspection catches placement errors, and functional testing verifies finished boards before dispatch. Firms offering these services typically also provide design-for-manufacture advice, which often reduces cost more than any negotiation on price.

Ten Hardware Manufacturers Serving the District

1. Ashby Precision Engineering. A machining specialist producing close-tolerance components for industrial and automotive customers, with in-house metrology and inspection capability.

2. Coalville Electronics Assembly. Provides surface-mount and through-hole assembly, testing and box build, serving low to medium volume production runs.

3. Donington Control Systems. Manufactures industrial control panels, enclosures and automation hardware, including design and certification support.

4. Ibstock Building Products Group. Continues the district's long tradition of clay and construction product manufacture, supplying the housebuilding and civil engineering sectors.

5. Measham Polymer Manufacturing. Specialises in injection moulding and plastics fabrication, offering tooling design alongside production.

6. Forest Fabrication Works. A sheet metal and structural fabrication business producing frames, guarding, housings and bespoke steelwork.

7. Kegworth Aerospace Components. Produces precision parts to aerospace quality standards, benefiting from proximity to East Midlands Airport and the region's aviation cluster.

8. Whitwick Instrumentation. Manufactures sensing and measurement equipment for industrial process monitoring, including calibration services.

9. Hermitage Machine Tools. Designs and builds bespoke production machinery and automation cells for manufacturers needing non-standard equipment.

10. National Forest Manufacturing Group. A collaborative of smaller specialist workshops sharing capacity, allowing them to take on larger contracts collectively.

Automation and the Skills Question

Automation has advanced steadily across the district, driven less by labour cost than by consistency and availability. Robotic handling, automated inspection and machine tending reduce variation and allow skilled staff to focus on setup, programming and problem-solving rather than repetitive loading.

The persistent constraint is skills. Experienced toolmakers, machine setters and controls engineers are in short supply nationally, and the district competes with larger engineering employers in Derby, Nottingham and Birmingham. Manufacturers that have invested in apprenticeships and links with local colleges have fared noticeably better, and several of the district's more successful firms treat training as a core commercial strategy rather than a cost.

Supply Chain Resilience

Recent years have taught manufacturers hard lessons about single-source dependencies. Extended lead times on electronic components, volatile freight costs and material shortages disrupted production across the country. The response in the district has been pragmatic: dual sourcing for critical items, larger buffer stocks of long-lead components, and a renewed interest in domestic suppliers even at modest cost premiums.

Nearshoring has brought genuine opportunity. Buyers who previously specified overseas production on price alone now weigh lead time, quality consistency, communication and the ability to visit a site. Manufacturers in North West Leicestershire are well placed to capture this work, particularly for medium-volume products where the cost gap is narrower.

Sustainability and Compliance

Environmental performance has moved from a marketing consideration to a procurement requirement. Major customers now request energy data, waste figures and material declarations as part of supplier assessment. Manufacturers investing in energy monitoring, efficient equipment and waste reduction are finding it easier to win contracts as well as reducing operating costs.

Product compliance has also grown more demanding, with requirements covering materials restrictions, safety standards and technical documentation. Manufacturers that maintain robust traceability from raw material through to finished unit handle these obligations far more easily than those relying on retrospective paperwork.

What Buyers Should Assess

Visit the facility. A tour reveals organisation, maintenance standards, quality culture and capacity far more reliably than a brochure. Look at how work in progress is managed and whether inspection equipment is calibrated and in use.

Examine quality systems in practice. Ask how a nonconformance is recorded, investigated and prevented from recurring. A manufacturer that can walk through a recent example with documentation is demonstrating a working system rather than a certificate on the wall.

Discuss capacity honestly. Understanding current utilisation and where a new order would sit in the schedule prevents disappointment later. Ask what happens if demand increases and whether additional capacity requires investment.

Finally, involve the manufacturer early in design. Design-for-manufacture input before drawings are frozen routinely removes significant cost, and firms in the district are generally willing to provide this advice as part of winning the work.

Final Thoughts

Hardware manufacturing remains a genuine strength of North West Leicestershire, sustained by skills, location and a willingness to invest. For buyers, the district offers capable suppliers within easy reach; for manufacturers, the shift towards resilient, shorter supply chains represents the best opportunity in a generation.