Rapid Tooling Solutions acquired by Cutwel

The group comprising Cutwel and Toolex, backed by Inflexion, acquired Rapid Tooling Solutions on 4 November 2026 from its owners Mark Stewart and David Barkel. The three businesses continue to trade separately under their own brands, keeping their customer and supplier relationships, and together generate annual revenue of approximately 37 million pounds. Operating from the Team Valley Trading Estate in Gateshead, Rapid Tooling Solutions distributes cutting tools to engineering workshops: the drills, end mills, inserts and taps that machine tools use to remove metal. It advises on which tool suits each material and operation, supplies the cutting fluids, and installs vending units dispensing consumables on the shop floor. It holds more than 10,000 references in stock and delivers within 24 hours. Availability governs this trade. A workshop whose production stops for want of an insert loses machine hours it cannot recover, which is why distributors carry deep inventory and why customers rarely change supplier once a selection of tools has been approved for a given process. Technical advice is the second element. The tool suited to an aluminium alloy will not machine a nickel alloy or hardened steel, and the geometry, substrate and coating each affect how long the tool lasts and what finish it leaves, so the supplier’s recommendation carries consequences for the customer’s cycle times and costs. Inflexion invested in Cutwel in August 2024 alongside the management team led by Adam Gillard, with the intention of extending the commercial organisation and developing the services offered to customers. This acquisition added coverage of North East England to a group otherwise concentrated in Yorkshire, within a market served by regional distributors.