Rowe Hankins founder takes a step back from the driving seat

(25/06/2009)

Toni Hankins, Rowe Hankins' founder, has taken a step back from the driving seat earlier this month when he became executive chairman. In a busy career, Toni has taken his circuit breaker and safety systems business from a back bedroom to a £5 million turnover, 60 employee business, with world wide connections.

In 1984 Toni launched into the UK the Heinemann range of hydraulic magnetic circuit breakers from Switzerland. These high integrity breakers are designed for precise protection without nuisance tripping and they became highly favoured in rail and similar applications that require high uptime. This business became Rowe Hankins Components in 1986.

The company continues to represent Heinemann and several other high quality Swiss manufacturers in the UK. Significantly, it has developed in-house design, development, manufacturing and engineering support facilities. It is now a key supplier of safety related engineering systems for the rail traction industry.

Five years ago, Toni leveraged the design and testing capability of Rowe Hankins to launch Cudis. This is a division of Rowe Hankins that designs and develops in the UK light commercial circuit breakers and other electrical protection equipment. These are manufactured under close quality control overseas and sold under their CPN brand which offers soundly engineered product that is still competitive. This has grown substantially and now has a dedicated warehousing and distribution centre. Terry Walker the sales manager for Cudis, who has made a major contribution to this growth, retired earlier in the year.

Toni’s son Michael continues the family tradition as assistant managing director and company secretary, with special responsibility for the development of the Cudis business, working alongside managing director Amanda Jones. “I am happy that I have built a strong team and a sound and successful business that will continue to grow and prosper,” commented Toni.

Related categories:  Circuit breakers MCB, MCCB, ACB   Company changes