Rapid response

Rapid response
Rapid response

So just how does a two-man start-up company with a single CO2 laser cutting machine evolve into a highly successful subcontract engineering company

with a projected 2015/16 turnover of £4.5 million within ten years? Dave Tudor headed off to Tividale in the West Midlands to find out.

Accurate Laser Cutting was formed in 2005 by current owners Jonathan Till and Steve Morgan. For Mr Morgan, running his own business had always been a personal ambition and after 10 years working for sheetmetal processing equipment specialist Bystronic/Pullmax, he was well-equipped from a technical perspective to make those aspirations a reality.

“Starting a new company is never easy,” he recalls, “but for me the motivation was to spend less time on the road. I enjoyed my 10 years with Bystronic but as a service engineer I was on the road almost constantly and missed out quite a bit on family life. The irony of course, as any business owner knows, is that getting a new venture off the ground is horrendously time consuming and hard work – for the first nine months we were working seven days a week. Fortunately these days I've got the work/home life balance a bit more under control.”

In the early days Accurate Laser Cutting was a lean and mean two-man band with Mr Till tasked with generating new business and looking after all things commercial and Mr Morgan, armed with his many years of industry experience and expertise, carrying out all the machining. Output in those days was courtesy of a solitary Bystronic ByStar 3015 4.4kW CO2 laser cutting machine.

Credit where it's due

Times were certainly tough for the business initially but in a world where banks get their fair share of bad press, Mr Morgan is actually full of praise for a certain financial establishment that just happens to have a Black Horse in its logo: “Any new start-up business has challenges with cashflow and consequently they're regarded as high risk by the banks but I have to say that Lloyds Bank have been excellent,” he enthuses.

“Without their support in the early days we simply couldn't have survived; we drew up a business plan detailing our goals and objectives and they backed us all the way, providing the vital cash injection we needed to get off the ground. Importantly, the bank has continued to support us as we've grown and evolved.”

This is good to hear. Lloyds Bank has for some years allied itself with the manufacturing sector – notably via a longstanding partnership with the MTA and as a sponsor of the MACH show. The fact that it's committed to helping companies like Accurate Laser Cutting is commendable.

The introduction of bending and folding via the purchase of an Amada HFE II pressbrake in 2007 to complement Accurate's flat plate laser cutting capabilities provided the blueprint for a business model that remains the cornerstone of the company today. It makes sense; Steve Morgan estimates that around 70% of the company's laser work also needs bending operations carried out so the two processes go hand in hand.

At your service

With Accurate Laser Cutting it's all about service, service, service. Oh and speed! Responses to quotations are processed within four hours and orders – depending on complexity – are usually delivered to the customer within a 48-72 hour time period. Small batch processing and prototyping have become the company's speciality.

“There are a number of subcontract companies out there that tend to favour larger, long-term contracts but we've found our niche at the other end of the spectrum,” Mr Morgan adds. “We work seven days a week, have our own delivery vans and operate a dedicated night shift. For us the focus is on turning orders around quickly and keeping leadtimes to an absolute minimum and it's this ongoing commitment to maintaining the highest standards in precision, quality and price that we believe gives us a distinctive edge over our competitors.”

In a business environment as fast moving as this where rapid turnaround of product is central to success, it's important to invest regularly in staff, new plant and infrastructure. In the last year alone, the company has doubled its real estate to 15,000ft² through the addition of a factory extension, raised the headcount of staff to 34 and installed a new eco-friendly biomass heating system at a cost of £140,000.

But that's not all; far from it in fact. Accurate Laser Cutting is celebrating its 10th birthday this year and has marked the occasion in style by embarking on a £1 million plus spending spree on new equipment and software.

Fibre comes to the fore

The jewel in the crown is the purchase of a new Bystronic 6kW BySprint 4020 Fiber laser costing around £500,000. No less important on the folding side however is the procurement of two new Bystronic pressbrakes: an Xpert 320 with 320 tonne/4m capacity and an Xpert150 with 150 tonne/3m capability. Both machines offer seven axes and can process material thicknesses up to 25mm. Collectively the company's investment strategies have undoubtedly paid dividends; turnover is up 50% since 2013 with around £4.5 million projected this year.

The 4020 Fiber laser is a state of the art machine in every aspect and complements two existing Bystronic CO2 laser machines – a 6kW BySpeed 3015 and a 4.4kW BySprint Pro 3015. It can process material up to 4m by 2m and offers high cutting speeds across a range of material thicknesses. Other benefits include low power consumption, excellent surface finishes on cut workpieces and, (unlike CO2 lasers) the ability to cut non-ferrous metals such as copper and brass.
Generally, CO2 lasers don't work well with reflective materials as the reflections can damage the resonator and laser optics.

“The time was definitely right for us to embrace fibre technology,” Mr Morgan reveals. “It's not quite there yet in terms of cutting thicker materials which is why we still use our CO2 lasers but it's not far off. I think there will be another technology jump soon that will see 8kW fibre lasers; as far as I'm concerned the only benefit of CO2 is its ability to cut thicker materials and we're really on the cusp of it becoming obsolete. On thinner plate, fibre offers greater speed, much lower operating and consumable costs and excellent surface finishes. Also, because nitrogen gas is used, there's no oxidised edge after cutting.

On the software side and also part of the raft of new investments, Accurate Laser Cutting has purchased eight licences of BySoft 7 from Bystronic for processing sheet and four licences of ByBend software for its pressbrake machines.

“It's a real challenge to recruit highly skilled sheetmetal workers so machines and software have had to evolve to offset these shortfalls,” Mr Morgan observes. “Both pieces of software work well for us as they allow offline programming: we can produce a 3D part virtually in the office, develop it out and then save the program on the network so the machines can access it. They also feature advanced nesting functionality as well as integration with tooling libraries and SolidWorks design software so programs can be produced quickly and easily.”

Transferrable technology

Boldly posted for all to see on the company's website is the intention to open further depots in every manufacturing city within the UK. This is an ambitious claim indeed but the process has already begun with the opening of a depot in Rotherham called Accurate Laser Cutting (SJS). Ownership of this division is a three way arrangement – Messrs Till and Morgan have a 50% stake with the remainder owned by Stephen Rolfe, also an ex-Bystronic employee.

As Mr Morgan explains, there is a definite strategy behind the expansion: “The business model here at Tividale works well but its simplicity makes it highly transferrable,” he says. “The concept of processing rapid turnaround work in small batch quantities is a model that can be applied successfully to other geographical areas and Rotherham is the first phase of this initiative.

“It's early days yet but we hope to open other depots throughout the UK if the opportunities present themselves. The Rotherham site shares core departmental functions with Tividale such as accounts and marketing but essentially it operates as a business entity in its own right.”

Brand loyalty

Perhaps not surprisingly, bearing in mind Mr Morgan's links with the company, there's a pretty apparent bias toward Bystronic equipment. However he insists that this is by no means automatic and every purchasing decision is preceded by a thorough evaluation process.

“Having worked for the company for 10 years undoubtedly gives me an insight into how the business works and the quality of the equipment,” he affirms. “Customer service was always top priority at Bystronic while I was there and that's still the case today – a fact that dovetails well with our own business ethic.

“Above all, because of the nature of our work, reliability of equipment is paramount and if something does go wrong, we need it sorting yesterday. In this regard Bystronic ticks all the boxes – excellent machines backed by excellent service and support but it's by no means a done deal. Chances are we'll be buying another fibre laser in the not too distant future and we'll be considering equipment from all manufacturers.”

Onwards and upwards

So what does the future hold in store? Not surprisingly, Accurate Laser Cutting has a number of short- and longer-terms goals and objectives. Short term aspirations include the purchase of a new fibre laser machine (preferably 8kW); the establishment of a permanent weekend nightshift (currently it's covered by overtime working); new sales quotation software to slicken the process; and the purchase of three new delivery vehicles.

Longer term, the goals are to elevate turnover up to the £5 million mark; investigate the possibility of launching a dedicated waterjet and/or plasma cutting facility; and evaluate other geographical areas for potential expansion opportunities.

Accurate Laser Cutting
www.accurate-laser.co.uk

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