Being successful in business means having the vision – and courage - to make the right decision at the right time.
Hixon-based laser cutting specialists Steel Service Centre (SSC) did just that, invested in new machinery, and now according to Sales Director Andy Evans have entered ‘the Premier league’ of their industry.
Their £800,000 investment in the highly-versatile Adige LT8 tube laser has, says Andy, given the business ‘unrivalled’ lead times.
Andy explains: “Before the Adige LT8 we were running with an existing tube laser which was coming to the end of its natural life. As a company we needed to make a decision about whether we were getting out of tube laser or were we going to take a deep breath and invest heavily in the next generation of tube laser and, with the Adige LT8, that’s what we did.”
The machine is already reaping benefits and has enabled the company to enter new markets.
“Because of the speed of the machine, we can now offer extremely quick lead times for our customers,” says Andy.
The technology in the machine allows SSC to be exceptionally accurate with the quotes they give customers because it is able to simulate the cut of the part and then predict how long the job will take.
“This is great for our customers,” says Andy, “because when we provide them with a quote it’s not a ‘finger in the wind’ job - it is exactly what the component costs.”
The Adige is capable of processing box sections, circular hollow sections, flats and irregular sections and – in a major increase in capacity – can produce components up to 8.5 metres long.
But the investment so nearly didn’t happen when Andy, Managing Director Austin Jarrett and Works Manager Julian were grounded by last year’s dust cloud fiasco and had a frantic drive through the night from the West Midlands to Dusseldorf to attend the annual Tube Tech exhibition, the only chance they’d have to see all the machines they were interested in under one roof.
As well as being specialist laser cutters, SSC are also one of the biggest flatbed subcontractors in the country and offer a round-the-clock service with a manufacturing facility which operates full continental shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The company’s sales department is manned from 8am to 6pm and there are three outlets which support the manufacturing headquarters at Hixon. These are at Sunderland, Castle Donnington and Reading.
All four centres are currently being kept very occupied.
“It’s boom time at the moment, we’re extremely busy and the company is doing very well,” said Andy.
