In September 1971, Bruce Frisby celebrated the birth of his only child by resigning from his job with Mettoy and entering the world of extrusion. Frisby trained as an engineer and had a vision of setting up his own engineering business. One of his first customers was a global petfood company based in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, UK. They wanted to find alternative suppliers for their extruder wear spares and approached Bruce to see if he could help. Frisby took the parts and decided this was an industry he wanted to work in. He built up a business supplying many of the large pet and human food manufacturers in the world, Food Extruder Spares.
At the age of 16, Bruce’s son, Matthew Frisby entered the business and in 2000, his wife Katie also joined. This is a true family business, and the values reflect this in the personal service that is provided. Matthew Frisby said, “I joined the family business in 1987 learning from my dad and our many customers. Dad retired approximately ten years ago and since then, my wife and I have run it together. We moved the business from Corby in Northamptonshire to our current site in a small village based near Peterborough. Our aim is to keep on adapting and supplying our customers with their extruder requirements for as long as we can.”
Over the years, the company has changed its name and weathered many different global economic difficulties, but it is still here today. They have worked with many of the larger extruder manufacturers and used this information and experience to widen the parts they make. This knowledge enables a bespoke individual service for customers. As Matthew said, “our business is a global affair, and we have customers in nearly all of the continents in the world. We are experienced exporters and use a large shipping company to assist with all the red tape that is required. In 2020, we had to adapt to leaving Europe, but I am pleased to say that we have retained our European customers. We are looking forward to the new trade deals that the UK will hopefully be doing with countries in the coming years.”
The business specializes in supplying wear parts such as screws, barrels, liners, shearlocks, dies, shafts and couplings for twin and single screw extruders. The business can make parts for Wenger, Clextral, Andritz Sprout Matador, APV Baker, Extru-Tech and Buhler as well as other brands. In addition to supplying brand new spare parts, they also offer a service refurbishing parts for extruders. This can be far more economical than buying new parts each time as often the parts will last longer once refurbished. The business prides itself on being more economical than buying from the original manufacturer but without impacting the quality. In addition to wear parts, the company has also supplied refurbished extruder machines and has recently entered the brand new extruder market. During 2020, the company worked with local suppliers to design and supply a twin-screw extruder for a far eastern customer. This was despite the global pandemic sweeping the world.
“The engineering world has changed over the last 50 years with new innovations and products to the market, but the business has adapted to meet these demands and looks forward to growing into new markets in the coming years,” the company said.
