Before companies like Brandauer were established, people were writing with birds’ feathers sharpened to a point. Celebrating its 150th anniversary and originally manufacturing pen nibs and now precision components and stampings sold all over the world, the family owned engineering company introduced The Princess Royal to its Newtown, Birmingham factory. Brandauer was given the royal seal of approval as Her Royal Highness Princess Anne was introduced to 11 former employees, existing staff that have more than 550 years service between them, recently qualified apprentices and the family owners, which included the co-founder’s four great-great-grandchildren. She then viewed an exhibition of the many different Brandauer products from the past century and a half, including a tiny lithographic nib that has been in continuous production for at least 145 years, before viewing first-hand the state-of-the-art wire EDM cell, tool-room and upper press shop that is currently making vision system electrodes for a global automotive client.  John Berkeley OBE, chairman of Brandauer, said: “Back in 1887, our co-founder Joseph Letière Petit produced a pen bearing the Royal Coat of Arms to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, so it is a great honour for us to welcome a member of the Royal family here to celebrate our own important milestone. The introduction of the steel pen revolutionised writing habits and today we are still at the forefront of innovation, supplying critical components to clean energy generation units and to ground-breaking projects, such as the Large Hadron Collider that will help transform our understanding of the Universe.” Pictured Her Royal Highness Princess Anne with David Spears of Brandauer.

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