COMPANY PROFILE - OSTIA TOOLS
D&T revival: Innovative Ostia Tools breathe new life into the dying arts
IN the past few decades, schools and workshops up and down the country have been scrapping their Design Technology assets at an alarming rate, as the once-popular subject’s funding is virtually cut from the national curriculum.
However, as the old saying goes: “crisis breeds opportunity”, which is exactly what happened to Antony Cox, Director of Ostia Tools, whose business is named after one of the busiest trading ports in ancient Rome, writes SAMUEL McKEOWN
Ostia Tools specialise in the re-conditioning of tool machinery in order to create aff ordable re-selling.
Antony said: “We started in 2016 after being off ered equipment from a school that stopped its DT program – and soon realised a lot of schools, colleges and universities, and even businesses in the private sector, across the country were paying to get rid of this type of equipment.
“Although our main market is buying from schools and universities, our aftermarket is specialist businesses and even independent workshops for the likes of hobbyists.
“A lot of schools are cutting DT as a subject because there’s no governmental processes or facilities in place to maintain these machines on a local or national level, anywhere.
“The idea of our business is to breathe new life into DT as a subject, because it is massively suff ering as it’s an expensive subject to run when compared to others such as maths. For example, if a school invests £10,000 in their maths program that will result in a sharp rise in grades, but if a school invests that amount within its DT department, then the rise will be much slower.
“So on a business sense, if schools aren’t seeing ‘bang for their buck’, the subjects to be axed are the non-core subjects like DT. This is where we come in.”
Antony feels the problem lies with the fact schools do not actually realise they can sell the equipment to refurb companies like Ostia Tools.
He added: “Most of these schools and companies were scrapping these machines because they didn’t understand their value. So they were being off ered
THE demise of Design & Technology has been down to apathy and low budgets
next to nothing for it, or charged hundreds of pounds for removal.
“I’ve visited a school to pick up a machine and ended up spotting equipment set for scrap; I had a look at it and ended giving the school money for it – they were over the moon. It’s happened on a couple of occasions.
“There was another time in London when a headteacher was amazed after we bought equipment from his school which was considered junk. The school bit our hand off because most of the machines we buy are 25 years old and have already provided maximum value – so essentially any money a school gets from us is a bonus.”
Although business is good for Ostia Tools, Antony stated the importance of not taking on something his business would struggle to handle.
“We’re based in Greater Manchester, so taking on a large piece of machinery could be an expensive endeavour when collecting from a few hundred miles away.
“It’s pivotal to think about additional transport costs and VAT – plus there’s more of a demand for smaller machinery.”
DIRECTOR Antony Cox stands beside Boxford BUD Centre Lathe, which is popular with model engineers and small workshops due to its compact size
22 TBH July-August, 2018
Although the bottom line is a priority for any business, Antony’s main motivation is to buy old machinery from schools, refurb it, and then resell it back to schools. This allows children to still study craft subjects.
www.toolbusiness.co.uk
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