Spreading the word

Plalite (01795 476367), located on Sittingbourne's Eurolink East Business Park along the rejuvenating Thames Gateway, is a company that has done all of the above. And a key reason for the company's success can be traced to the triumvirate of engineers running the business. The three hands-on owner-directors, Darren Cordell, Tony Bess and Arthur Smith, have some 100 years of engineering experience between them and have turned the fortunes of the company around over the last 10 years. Originally founded in 1968, the company had become part of Phoenix Tooling, prior to the initial managerial involvement of the current owners in 1997. At that time, as a time-served engineer working on the Plalite shopfloor, Mr Cordell recalls with a wry smile how he was "flattered" into taking a five per cent share in the ailing business, along with two of his colleagues. Being more closely entwined with the success of the company was "a great motivator for putting in the long hours and hard work necessary", alongside a more focused management approach, with an emphasis on making the company leaner to kick-start a change in fortunes. In 1997, as well as a manufacturing site, the company had a three-storey office block that was a drain on resources. Consolidation onto a single site and redressing the office to shop floor staff ratio was an obvious cost reducing solution. As the company's overheads reduced and its fortunes improved, the three future directors gradually increased their percentage interest until only one major obstacle remained to prevent them taking on complete ownership of Plalite, namely a substantial pension deficit. A resolution to this was key, if the three engineers were to be able to obtain the necessary backing from financial institutions that would support a complete management buyout. In February 2004, a settlement for the pension fund was negotiated and Mr Cordell, Mr Bess and Mr Smith became joint owners and directors of Plalite. STEADY GROWTH Since the buyout, Plalite has grown steadily year-on-year, even through the economic crisis, from a company with a £1.6 million turnover in 2004 to one with an expected turnover this year of £2.6 million. "One of the things I am most proud of is how we have performed in the current economic climate. Not only have we not had to make any redundancies, but we have actually taken on five additional machinists from a local company that unfortunately did close, due to the recession, and we may take on a further one or two," enthuses Mr Cordell. "Although some long-term contracts have dropped off, other customer demand has kept us so busy that we continue to run overtime, while a recently signed three-year contract has been key in deciding to open a second small site, with a focus on assembly." Historically, the firm was highly dependent on the defence industry, before diversifying into the papermaking and aerospace sectors, with word of mouth being the main driver for obtaining new customers. Indeed, the last 18 months has seen Plalite, via an existing aerospace customer's recommendation, move into the motorsport sector for the first time, when it was approached to do some work for a Formula 1 team. Recent years have seen both defence and papermaking work slowing. The drop in defence work latterly is simply a result of a change in MOD procurement strategy and supplier rationalisation that favours larger companies that can supply groups ('baskets') of components, although Plalite is still a niche supplier for the surveillance segment of defence. At the same time, the UK paper making industry has been decimated over recent years, with nearly all the local mills closed and work moved to the continent. But, again, Plalite's expertise is still required, with several long-term export contracts underway. However, the main sector that has sustained the business over the last couple of years has been the aerospace industry, and particularly parts for aircraft interiors. In fact, it is a three-year aerospace deal to supply sub-assemblies for aircraft seating that has led to Plalite opening a 400 m² satellite site. The latest Saxon Shore site, just around the corner from the main Styles Close facility, has three Deckel Maho 3-axis milling machines (DMG, 01582 570661), with space to expand to some 12 machines in total, in fact two more 3-axis Deckel Mahos arrive in December. The smaller site is focused on operating as a dedicated manufacturing cell, as well as accommodating a dedicated assembly area to which existing assembly work, at the Styles Close site, will soon be moved. Image: Investment in DMG machinery is a key element of the company's expansion AEROSPACE SUSTENANCE Although the company does some design work – including a recent camera light assembly for attaching to riot shields – the core business is subcontract machining, with a focus on developing existing niche markets, rather than targeting simpler mass produced components that have increasingly become the mainstay of Chinese and Indian subcontractors. Mr Cordell believes the key to the company's success has been "service", commenting: "We deliver components to our customers on time and hold stock at the customer's request for them to call from, as much as a full ship-set (over a hundred thousand pounds worth) for one of our aerospace customers." Service has been at the heart of establishing partnerships with a dozen core customers that have generated ongoing orders over several years. Image: 5-axis machining is part of the arsenal at Plalite Even during the move to the current main Styles Close site in 2008, the ongoing service to customers was planned in, so that while the entire factory move took a single week, individual machines were moved in a single day: literally stopping production on the old site and resuming machining on the new site less than 24 hours later. The 2008 factory move was from rented 15,000 m² premises to the company's own £1.1 million, 12,000 m² factory purchased off-plan, with a further £300,000 invested to fit it out to Plalite's exact requirements – a big financial investment made at the height of a global recession. (Ironically, the move was precipitated by Tesco purchasing the old site as part of a proposed multi-million pound town centre regeneration, initially dubbed 'Tesco Town', which has since stalled while investors review current economic conditions.) Image: Plalite's Styles Close facility – a £1.1 million investment for the subcontractor Walking around the Styles Close shopfloor, it's clear only a handful of the milling and turning machines are not running and that is only because it is school half-term, so more operators are on holiday than normal. The shopfloor includes: four 5-axis Deckel Maho milling machines; six 3-axis Deckel Maho milling machines; six 3-axis Bridgeport milling machines (0116 286 9900); an assortment of eight lathes and turning centres; two Charmilles wire-erosion machines (024 7653 8666), as well as various forming, fabricating and inspection equipment. Mr Cordell tells Machinery that 90 per cent of the work on the shopfloor at the moment is from regular customers, the other 10 per cent from new ones and that is where Plalite's next challenge is, with the recent appointment of a marketing administrator and a desire to actively promote the company's successes to new customers, by going beyond just word of mouth.