EDM specialist Leeds-based B-Tek precision buys Excel Precision

B-Tek and Excel Precision are headed up by Tony Sitek, as managing director, who, after bringing together two EDM companies to form B-Tek in 2011, set his sights on developing a nationwide group of EDM facilities serving local industry (see article here). At Leeds, B-Tek has 11 EDM units and seven personnel, having grown from an initial four machines and two people. Excel Precision boasts 13 EDM machines, a toolroom and 11 staff. "We have been on the look-out for 2 ½ years, since we started, for other companies in strategic geographical areas; essentially, the South West, the South East, North of Scotland and the North of England or South of Scotland, as a perfect scenario. We have realised that, generally speaking, people tend to use their local EDM guy. "For example, B-Tek generates two new customers a week, and has done from day one. It now has around 270. Excel Precision had 450 customers and when we looked at the customer lists, even though we do exactly the same thing in exactly the same markets with exactly the same equipment and same skill sets, we didn't have one shared customer. That confirmed our thinking that it is local business that is the core, with local meaning within a 50 mile radius, although both companies do have some customers that fall outside that figure." The deal with Excel Precision came via a direct call made to the company asking if the current owner was willing to discuss a sale. It was one of many such phone calls Mr Sitek has made over the past couple of years, in fact. With two owners having retired and the third wanting to do the same, a positive response subsequently saw serious discussion start in April this year, with the purchase completed in August. The operation is overseen now by the son of the previous owner, Matthew Innes, which, says Mr Sitek, provides continuity with customers, as he is well known to them. The benefits in grouping such companies include economies of scale, in terms of management, systems and purchasing power, for example. There is one managing director across both sites – Tony Sitek, and one operations director for both, Steve Batt, while finance is centralised in Leeds and other computer systems are now identical. On purchasing, with consumables the second largest and electricity the third largest outgoing for the companies, there is scope here to strike better bargains. "The economies of scale are significant by doing what we are doing, and when we get a third, we will take further costs out." Excel Precisions aerospace credentials of Nadcap and AS 9100 Rev C, plus ISO 9001: 2008, will also prove helpful as B-Tek can more quickly and easily move to obtain the same approvals. In the case of AS 9100 Rev C and ISO 9001: 2008, the two companies will actually share dual certification, Mr Sitek explains. Although not dismissing a purchase soon, if the right one came up, Mr Sitek says there will be a short period of consolidation before growth is back on the agenda in April of next year. But the Excel Precision acquisition is demonstration of a model that will be rolled out again and again over the coming years. Image: Tony Sitek, right, with Steve Batt