1989
The Beginning: August 1989, Little End Road, St. Neots, Cambridgeshire, 880Sq.Ft.
1989
Inside the Patternshop, showing the first machines and plenty of space!
1989
The first foundry pattern made at Midas in September 1989, street signage for PCC Ltd, Newport.
1989
The Patternshop filling up: 2 toolboxes, more machines, some talent and ingenuity but NO heating! Winter ’89-90 was a cold time to be at Midas.
1990
3 toolboxes show our first employee Arthur Tingey has joined us. A large wadkin lathe also appears, making larger work easier for us.
1990
High quality hand made pattern equipment made in mahogany and epoxy resin to produce magnesium wheels for the Jaguar 'E' Type
1990
Founders Alan & Doug handmade all this pattern equipment to produce magnesium wheels for the Jaguar E-Type, in just 2 weeks! In 1990 we only had 2D drawings to work from.........
1990
Midas has only ever delivered 100% Total Quality Product and has done since day one!
1990
Getting crowded, more staff, a mezzanine floor and heating! We were getting close to making our first plastic moulding.
1993
Midas’ first plastic moulding! It was a 2 part speaker housing made for Celestion. A silicon mould tool was made from this handmade model.
1994
Midas moves to Bedford. Units 12 and 13 now occupy 2000sq.ft. on Bedford Business Park.
1994
The 2 units combine to give us plenty of room as the workforce moves into double figures
1994
Soon a mezzanine floor would fill this space and our new polyurethane mould-room would start operating.
1994
The traditional Patternshop continued to grow, the space soon filled with equipment, machines and people.
1994
The handmade model shown in the bottom right hand corner would have been used to make mould tools in this era.
1996
A mixed year, happy to see us take on more space with Unit 14, our dedicated polyurethane moulding space but sad to see our founding partner, Doug Payne, leave Midas for pastures new.
1996
Precision, accuracy, great construction, superb surface finish and always delivering Quality on Time ensured that we continued to grow
1997
Our first CNC machine is delivered, a HAAS (Mikron Badge) 1m x 0.6m x 0.5m vertical machining centre.
1997
Our first CNC machined pattern, a water pump housing, a turning point that would change pattern making at Midas forever!
1998
The development of Midas’ unique MRIM tooling is well underway allowing the production of much larger tools….
1998
Patternmaking expertise, foundry tooling materials and a positive ‘can do’ mentality see ‘MRIM’ establish itself in the UK market.
1999
Midas moves to 22 Shuttleworth Road, Bedford with 12,000sq ft. of space to develop.
1999
A modern building in a great location with excellent facilities – a new building for the new millennium.
1999
New mezzanine floors are installed taking working space beyond 20,000 sq.ft.
1999
Partitioning is installed, creating a bespoke polyurethane moulding department complete with integral tool-making.
1999
Corporate colours throughout compliment great organisation of infrastructure.
1999
The Midas roundel is synonymous with quality and has been since 1989.
1999
CNC machining centres being moved and installed.
1999
Workspaces being equipped for moulding production.
1999
Our biggest patternshop yet! 4,000 sq.ft. of workshop fills up fast.
1999
More benches, machines and people, as pattern and modelmaking continue to grow at Midas.
2000
The Patternshop in 2000, well equipped and busy!
2003
9th International Pattern and Modelmaking Congress – Warwick Castle, England.
2005
UKTI backed Trade Mission to Japan to study Japanese pattern and toolmaking.
2005
Midas takes an additional 10,000 sq.ft. in an adjacent building – 23 Shuttleworth Road.
2005
Unit 22 now dedicated to the manufacture of polyurethane moulding releasing unit 23 for tool-making – our largest ever dedicated space!
2005
The new additional space allowed us to build a dedicated CAD office, inspection room, paint shop, resin room along with separate areas for patternmaking, CNC machining and metal engineering.
2005
Plenty of space to expand our CNC machine shop!
2005
However, it doesn’t take long to fill …!
2005
Busy and running around in no time…..
2005
And our patternshop soon fills up…
2005
Spacious light and airy – a great place to make patterns and models.
2005
Digital inspection of finished products soon becomes the norm within our CAE department.
2006
10th International Pattern and Modelmaking Congress in Paris, France.
2008
Midas completes the 3 Peaks Challenge!
2008
The challenge: to climb the UK’s 3 peaks within 24 hours.
2008
We did it!! Along with our corporate sponsor, Barclays Bank PLC, we raised nearly £9,000 for Macmillan Cancer Care.
2009
August 2009 saw Midas hit 20 years of trading - we've never seen so many corporate cupcakes!!!
2011
Our first Plastics Industry Award – Toolmaker of the Year Award.
2011
Midas supports the Movember charity.
2011
Our Boys certainly did get into the spirit of the event.
2011
As did our girls!! We managed to raise nearly £6,000 for Movember in 2011.
2013
The Mayor of Bedford, Dave Hodgson, visits Midas and learns all about plastic moulding.
2013
We take delivery of our 7th CNC machine, a HAAS BT50 VF9 VMC.
2014
Midas celebrates 25 year in business
2014
Clean, tidy, efficient, well managed, well invested and filled with talented people who make Midas what it is today. Midas manufacturing will be 25 years old in 2014 and still a Great British company!
2015
Midas keeps it corporate with new black and orange forklift
2016
Midas invests in new Mercedes Sprinter van to ensure the safe delivery of mouldings
2017
Midas sales supports Medilink EM and Medtech at the Ricoh Arena
2017
Midas Sales Manager speaks at Open University event on behalf of the Institute of Engineering Designers in recognition of International Day in Engineering
2018
Midas starts to take waste and recycling seriously with a team trip to the local refuge centre
2018
Switching over to LED lighting across both factories as we start to take action in reducing our energy usage and carbon emissions
2019
Midas officially turns 30 and celebrates in style with cake and champagne
2019
Midas shortlisted for Plastics Industry Award - Supplier Partnership - Toolmaker
2019
Midas invests in another VF 9 HAAS machining centre to increase capacity and reduce lead times- taking the total to 7 large CNC machines on site.
2019
Midas invests in BP Chargemaster Dual Charger to encourage further use of electric vehicles - free of charge for all Midas employees, Suppliers, and Customers travelling to Midas.
2020
Faced with a global pandemic and classed as a critical Midas continued to manufacture and supply parts - 2020 will always be known as the C year.
2020
Midas wins the 2020 Energy Institute award for Energy Management - a massive achievement for a small UK manufacturing company competing against global entries from 27 other countries.
2020
Midas invests in its own Solar Farm in the summer, with 650 PV panels installed across both factories
2020
Midas wins the Regional Final for Make UK's Energy and Sustainability category
2021
Midas MD, Alan Rance, helps to plant 10 oak trees at Shocott Spring, the first 10 of 2500, all funded by Midas in The Forest of Marston Vale
2021
Midas signs 5-year partnership with The Forest of Marston Vale and commits to investing in the planting of 500 trees per year alongside 500 future PUI's
2021
Midas invest in their largest machine to date - HAAS VF11/40 with a machining envelope of 3m by 1m by 0.7m and weighing in at an impressive 15 tonnes
2021
New signs up at Midas to help promote and encourage others to move towards Carbon neutrality
2021
The start of 2021 saw Midas become Carbon net-zero and taking the massive decision to mitigate all carbon within our PU mouldings and associated tooling