Within
the metallising
industry,certainly
within the UK over
the last twenty
years or so,the
move has been away
from small independent
units who in the
main knew their
products and customer
needs,to large multinational
companies.With the
advent of the "global"
players came higher
overheads,the move
to larger and faster
machines capable
of enormous production
quantities and understandably,the
onus on return added
value and margins.At
the time we felt
that there were
many areas of the
industry that could
be best served by
a smaller, specialist
company who by definition
were able to be
flexible and maintain
service and quality
at a competitive
price.
Thus in
July 1995,Ultimet
Films Ltd was created
as one such metallising
company by three
colleagues,Myke
Stott,Keith Williams
and Andrew Mitchell,all
ex employees of
one such "global
player".These
three founders had
between them over
50 years experience
within the industry
in areas such as
production,machine
installation,quality
control and customer
service aspects.
The choice
of the site for
this new venture
had to be in keeping
with the philosophy
that in order to
produce a quality
service the machinery
had to be housed
in a new factory
which allowed ease
of building maintenance
whilst also making
future expansion
possible.The factory
chosen fitted all
criteria,being only
three years old
and unused in that
time with easy access
to the A11
the main route to
East Anglia and
the motorways beyond.
A decision
to purchase a new
metalliser was made
at an early stage.To
produce a quality
product using all
possible substrates
at a multitude of
thicknesses,the
machine not only
had to be "state
of the art",but
also easy to maintain
,simple to operate
and be manpower
efficient.
A Valmet
General 1650mm wide
machine was chosen
which was commissioned
and running by mid
December 1995.
Following
a year of establishing
ourselves ,we extended
the premises and
installed our first
slitter installed
in February 1997
supplied by Valmet
Atlas of Bedford.
The reliability
and quality of product
produced on these
two machine enabled
the company to build
firm foundations
for future growth.
|
