Coventry automotive manufacturer wins string of new contracts

A specialist automotive supplier has secured a string of new contracts as carmakers look for more local supply chains.

RDM Group, which provides electronic and software engineering, automotive wiring harnesses, CNC machining, carbon fibre and trim and upholstery, has seen sales rise past pre-lockdown levels after carmakers switched to sourcing more locally to reduce dependencies on long, global supply chains

This has seen orders jump 30% on this time last year, creating up to 18 new jobs across manufacturing, software development, logistics and in the firm’s autonomous technology division Aurrigo, which has recently launched Auto-Dolly, the world’s first driverless cargo and luggage dolly for airports.

Bosses are now looking to capitalise on this demand by investing more than £500,000 into increasing engineering capacity, capital equipment, further recruitment and the opening of an additional international office in Singapore.

David Keene, CEO of RDM Group, commented: “We have definitely noted a shift in purchasing decisions by the big OEMs, who are experiencing significant supply chain issues from Brexit, Covid-19 and natural disasters.

“The requirement for local sourcing has never been greater and we have certainly benefitted since lockdown was eased, both in immediate sales and future pipeline of opportunities.”

He added: “At our Advanced Engineering Centre, we have the capability to support design, development, prototyping and medium volume supply across a range of engineering disciplines.

“This means customers can use us to single-source manufacturing solutions in anything from electronics and trim to injection moulding and carbon fire parts as lightweighting becomes increasingly important.”

RDM Group was founded 28 years ago when Mr Keene decided to take voluntary redundancy from MG Rover.

Over next three decades it has overcome a number of major economic and global shocks to remain a critical supplier of engineering services to some of the world’s best-known automotive manufacturers, including Aston Martin, JLR and Morgan Motor Company.

All components are manufactured to IATF16949 global quality standards and can be delivered in batches starting at one-offs right up to 50,000 units per week.

RDM Group www.rdmgroup.co.uk

Aurrigo www.aurrigo.com