Family-run Calderbrook combines more than four generations of woodworking expertise with a broad machinery portfolio spanning virtually every stage of production. F&JP looks at the Lancashire business, its application-led approach and the latest additions to its offer.
Buying woodworking machinery ought, logically enough, to begin with what you want to make. Yet machinery suppliers have traditionally organised their portfolios around what they sell: saws in one section, sanders in another, CNC machinery somewhere else.
Visit Calderbrook Woodworking Machinery’s website and there is an interesting alternative. Alongside searches by machine type and manufacturer is an ‘I-Make’ section, grouping equipment according to customer activities including Kitchens & Bedrooms, Windows & Doors, Fire Doors & Doorsets and Plastic Products.
It is a small distinction, but one that neatly sums up the independent Lancashire supplier’s approach: start with what the customer is trying to produce, then identify the machinery best suited to the job.
Based at New Line Industrial Estate in Bacup, Calderbrook has been supplying the woodworking industry since 1994. Established by Anthony and Susan Hoyle, the business passed to sons Aaron and Simon in 2023, beginning the next chapter in what is now a fourth-generation family company.
Today, the brothers are co-directors of an operation covering new, second-hand and refurbished machinery, together with rebuilding, installation, training and aftersales support.
That breadth is an important part of the Calderbrook proposition. Rather than being tied to a single manufacturer or narrow machine category, the company represents a wide range of specialist independent brands and can discuss investment in the context of the customer’s wider production process, requirements and budget.
Broad capability
Calderbrook’s portfolio includes names such as Holz-Her, Boere, Orma, Motimac, Woodfast and Osama, among others. The company has been a specialist in wide-belt sanding for many decades, alongside pressing and glueing technology, edge banding and sawing.
Between them, those manufacturers cover virtually every key area of woodworking production, from CNC machining, panel processing and edge banding to moulding, sawing, drilling, sanding, pressing, veneer processing and extraction.
The result is an offer capable of serving very different businesses, from smaller joinery workshops to kitchen and bedroom manufacturers, window and door producers and larger industrial operations.
Calderbrook’s Woodfast range continues to expand, giving UK customers access to an increasingly comprehensive and broad selection of woodworking machinery and accessories. From the individual woodworker purchasing their first machine to established manufacturers investing in heavy-duty production equipment, Calderbrook aims to provide a quality Woodfast solution matched to the customer’s needs without breaking the bank.
That ability to offer different solutions is central to the business. A customer looking to increase output, replace an ageing machine, improve finish quality or introduce a new process may not necessarily need the same answer as another company with a superficially similar requirement.
Calderbrook’s role is therefore as much about understanding the application as supplying the equipment.
Expanding the offer
That philosophy was evident at the recent Professional Woodworking Expo at the NEC in Birmingham, where Calderbrook presented a cross-section of its wider machinery offer alongside one of its newer areas of focus: sanding specialist Motimac.
The Motimac brand gives Calderbrook additional options across wide-belt, brush, segmented-pad and specialist sanding applications, complementing existing names within its portfolio.
While the machinery incorporates technology aimed at improving consistency, flexibility and finish quality, the more significant point for Calderbrook is the ability to offer customers another solution where the application demands it.
It is a useful illustration of how the company continues to develop its range. Adding a manufacturer is not simply about increasing the number of brands on offer, but filling gaps, broadening choice and giving customers access to machinery suited to different production requirements and investment levels.
For a business that has now spent more than three decades supplying the woodworking sector, that combination of experience and adaptability is important.
Machinery continues to evolve, as do the pressures facing manufacturers, whether around productivity, labour, quality, flexibility or investment cost. Calderbrook’s broad portfolio gives it the opportunity to respond to those changing requirements without forcing every customer towards the same type of solution.
And that brings the story back to the deceptively simple ‘I-Make’ section on the company’s website. For all the sophistication of modern woodworking machinery, Calderbrook’s proposition begins with a straightforward question: what do you make?
From there, the aim is to find the right machinery to help make it better.
