The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne took time out of his 24 hour election tour today, to pay a visit to the Leeds headquarters of Winder Power Ltd, the leading UK manufacturer of power and distribution transformers.
As part of the whistlestop tour of the facility Mr Osborne was greeted by Winder Power Operations Director, Andy Pinkney and local Conservative MP Stuart Andrew and had the opportunity to get to grips with some of the state-of-the-art machinery, including plying his skills on a coil winding machine.
With a history dating back to 1898 when Conservative Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury led the Government, all Winder products continue to be designed, hand wound and assembled at the company’s 80,000 square foot factory in Leeds.
While continuing to respect the traditional skills, today Winder transformers are used in energy projects around the world – from the Middle East to South America – while the company stays true to its West Yorkshire roots.
Commenting on the Chancellors visit, Andy Pinkney, Winder Power Operations Director said, “We are delighted to welcome the Chancellor to our factory today to show how we have combined the century old craftsmanship of hand wound transformers with cutting edge engineering to service British and international markets and continue a 117 year history as a leading British transformer brand on the world stage.”