“We also invest heavily to keep up to date with in the latest technology, whether that be machinery for the shop floor or our IT systems, and we also look to employ the best people.

“Over the past year we have increased our employee numbers to 56, with five of those being apprentices. We also now have a dedicated member of staff to train up our apprentices, and we have recently invested £60000 on a vertical machining centre and a CNC lathe specifically for them to begin their basic training on.”

Craftsman also enjoys strong export sales to Sweden, Germany, Singapore and the Netherlands with some of its main customers being BAE Systems, Sandvik, Boeing and AO Smith Corporation.

One of the secrets of Craftsman’s success is the dividing up of the company into five ‘cells’, all named after rivers; Severn concentrates on toolholding products and rotating centres, 80 per cent of which is exported; Aire focuses on sub-contract machining, largely for the oil field sector; Delaware is responsible for workholding products while North is responsible for development work.

The exception to the river names is Sulzer, which is permanently contracted to Leeds-based Sulzer Pumps UK.

Mr Johnson said: “One of the advantages of separating the company this way means that each cell has its own manager who acts as a single point of contact for respective customers.

“We regard this as important for helping further develop long-standing business relationships, which in turn leads to maintaining overall quality, delivery and customer satisfaction.”