Tendersinfo keep you informed about the latest events in the national and international Procurement Industry. Procurement News provides in-depth coverage of the procurement industry, including contract awards, contract additions, new contract wins, mergers and acquisitions. Tendersinfo through its tender news section provides an update on all domestic and global tendering opportunities, invitation to bid & trade leads.

Publish Date : 06-Nov-2013

Ability Tec, Bolton-based contract manufacturer has secured a contract from Parotec Solutions, for business that was formerly going to China.

Parotec owner Bob Atkins said, "We had quality concerns with our supplier in China and it was taking three months to get the circuit boards delivered". "Ability Tec's price is within a whisker of what we're getting from China but for a more advanced, higher quality product and the savings we make by not having to take 17 hour flights to the Far East compared to visiting a factory three miles away is huge in terms of cost, time and also certainty."

Adding: "It also helps our cash flow that we can order in smaller batches of a thousand units whereas China could only offer their prices on large, inflexible orders."

Ability Tec was formed previous year when the Government closed a Remploy Electronics factory.

Manchester-based business consultancy Local Business Partners was approached by Greater Manchester Chamber to see if the factory could be re-opened.

Ability said, "The Company provides part-time directors of finance, HR and marketing to growing SMEs". "It put together a business plan and negotiated a rescue plan with the Government."

Ability said that Ability Tec is being run by part-time directors as a social enterprise. Profits are re-invested in the company and distributed as bonuses to non-director staff.

Three quarters of the workforce is halted.

Ability said that it purchases materials for, assembles and tests PCBs, "and can provide full turn-key service with products ready to ship to end customers".

Parotec was using a Taiwanese contractor with factories in China to manufacture a charger for multiple mobile phones, iPads and tablets.

Ability after a trial run is at present making the whole 5,000 per annum run of chargers.

Parotec's Atkins said, "We began to seek a UK source of manufacture and when I heard about what Ability Tec is doing I simply drove to their factory and knocked on their door. It was the day after the re-opening of the factory had been in the press and I think they were a bit taken aback". "They put me in touch with a Manchester-based electronics designer to revise the specification and we put the work out to tender.

Oli Randell, MD of Ability said, "Bob simply drove into the car park and banged on the door".

On competing with China, Randell said: "Too many companies see the unit cost from a factory with cheap labour, but don't see the added cost to them of working capital, transportation and storage, duty and also management time in having to maintain supplier relationships across thousands of miles and several time zones.

Go to previous page