Coming home

Having invested over £750,000 during the past 12 months it is fair to say that as a global business Starrett is committed to its manufacturing operation in the Scottish border town of Jedburgh.

“How we ended up in Jedburgh really comes back to the family's ethos which goes right back to the founder, Laroy Sunderland Starrett,” explains marketing manager, John Cove. “Although he was an inventor and businessman he was also a philanthropist and is often quoted as saying ‘I have believed that I could do no greater good than help create a business that would give people employment and a chance to earn an honest living'.

“So there has always been a desire to locate Starrett facilities in areas where wealth creation is relatively scarce – in areas where the company can make a larger positive impact on the local economy. This is also true of our sites in the US and in Brazil – they're not in great industrial locations – but are in smaller towns where the company makes a substantial social difference.”

A positive social change was certainly required in Jedburgh at the time as the town's largest employer, a thread manufacturer, North British Rayon, had closed its doors leaving hundreds of people out of work. Several visits to the town by senior company staff resulted in the decision to invest in Jedburgh. As Laroy's grandfather William Starrett emigrated from Scotland to America and settled at Francistown, New Hampshire, around 1720, the decision also proved a fortunate homecoming for the family.

In 1958 the 195,000ft² site was built and the company has been there ever since. Of course the business has changed over the years: “When Starrett started here the manual production methods were very labour intensive,” Mr Cove states. “As a worldwide business, Starrett has established Jedburgh as a global centre of excellence for manufacture of three key product lines – bandsaw and hole saw blade production and optical profile projectors.”

Today, 175 skilled members of staff support the manufacture of these three key product areas along with the sales, service and training for the full range of Starrett's products. Automation features significantly in the production of the company's saw blades which are produced around the clock, five days a week. It has to when you produce over 1.5 million hole saws per annum.

To guarantee the production volume and consistent quality a Kuka twin robot cell is currently being commissioned for hole saw production. With a total investment value of over £300,000, the project was instigated and processed through each key milestone by the engineering and production teams in Jedburgh.

Just like saw blade production the optical profile projectors are manufactured in cells with around 400 produced each year. While the projectors are made to order, the hole saws and popular size bandsaw blades are made for stock. All of the products produced are warehoused in Jedburgh with over £5.5 million worth of stock held to support customers across the globe. The Jedburgh site is autonomous in most of its activities, from product development to process engineering and visitors can now see the locally produced high performance saw blades in action on the company's recently launched range of bandsaw machines. “We want potential and existing customers to experience Starrett quality and get involved rather than be bored by presentations,” Mr Cove affirms. “From hand tools to automated sawing machines, and micrometers to the latest video inspection metrology equipment, it is important for us to demonstrate the quality of our products.”

Quality of the products manufactured at its Scottish facility and at other sites around the globe is paramount to the company. However, there is a significant problem with counterfeiting in certain countries which Starrett is addressing with subtle changes to the product labelling and packaging designs. “It is not an easy problem to overcome,” says Mr Cove, “but our reputation could potentially be damaged by these substandard products. To the customer they look just like ours, but they will fail to perform like a Starrett product.”

Starrett has a number of further investment plans for its Jedburgh facility including additional developments in the hole saw production line, increasing the efficiency of the production of hole saws still further and also reducing the energy consumed, making the manufacturing process much more environmentally friendly.

Starrett
www.starret.co.uk

Optimax
www.optimaxonline.com