About Charnwood
Charnwood Machinery Ltd is a family run business, established in 1977, to offer top quality woodworking machinery to enthusiasts and trade users.
Since that time, many changes have taken place in the products we sell, due to technological advances, design innovations and even government safety regulations. There have also been changes in the market place itself thanks to fast and efficient delivery services, and more recently e-commerce sites like this one.
Our philosophy however remains unchanged and all products which carry the ‘Charnwood’ brand represent the highest manufacturing standards and excellent value for money, all backed up by our product warranty which has been extended to 5 years on many products.
Our warehouse and distribution centre is based in Leicester from where we operate a next working day delivery service to most mainland UK addresses.
We also pride ourselves on offering excellent after sales support. Our engineers are on hand to answer any technical questions you may have and we keep thousands of spare parts on the shelf ready to go should you ever need them.
If you want to view products in person before you buy, you can visit any of the distributors listed on our stockists page who can offer you free advice on your requirements.
Our Company History
Our company was founded in 1977 by Alistair Cook who had been working in the export department of Leicester based woodworking machinery manufacturer, Wadkin. It started in a small way, like many family run companies, with his office in the spare bedroom and his workshop in the family garage. Charnwood began by selling other brands of woodworking machinery, such as Modern who were also based in Leicester.
The company steadily grew and soon moved into commercial premises taking on staff to cope with the workload. As an engineer by trade, Alistair had always intended to get into manufacturing and was soon putting new designs into production using locally manufactured components.
By the mid 80’s Charnwood had moved into rented factory space and was manufacturing a small range of professional machinery including planer thicknessers, morticers, table saws and mitre saws.
During the 90’s Alistair’s 3 children, Richard, Alex and Samantha, had now finished school and joined the company full time. It was insisted they work in every part of the business to ‘learn the ropes’ and only later on join the management team.
Today we are very proud of our purpose built, self owned premises, located just 1 mile from Junction 22 on the M1.
The heart of the business has always been in designing new products, striking a balance between offering the latest technologies and maintaining the tradition of high quality our customers have come to expect from the Charnwood brand. We still do the research and design elements of the process here in Leicester, but most of our manufacturing has now been transferred to low cost centres in Asia, where we are able to produce competitively priced, high quality machinery as demanded by the British public.
Sadly Alistair Cook passed away in 2011 whilst on a climbing expedition in Africa, he leaves the company in the capable hands of the 2nd generation, who continue to build on his principles and put the customers needs first.
