Telford manufacturer sees spike in overseas sales

Advanced Chemical Etching (ACE), which employs 50 people at its headquarters in Telford, has secured three big projects in aerospace, communications and the medical sector, taking the value of overseas trade to 38 per cent of its £5m turnover.

It comes after the company embarked on an improvement drive that has increased on-time delivery and right first time performance, two crucial factors in securing the recent contract wins.

“Our export activity has been steadily growing year-on-year since 2010, but the last seven months have definitely seen a spike that we’re hoping to sustain,” said managing director Ian Whateley.

“There may be an element of the pound slipping making us more competitive. However, a lot of the projects we are winning are extremely technical and not many firms around the world can deliver the complexity of components the customer requires.”

He added: “Interest has come from all over too – Germany, Luxembourg, United States of America, we’ve even had orders from customers in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Thailand.”

ACE’s work can include anything from safety critical components for aircraft and cars to simple washers, electronic connectors and ornate clock faces.

With the latest production machinery and ongoing investment at its 25,000 sq ft facility in Hortonwood, the company can make products in materials including stainless steel, nickel alloys, copper, beryllium copper, phosphor bronze, brass and, thanks to new processes developed by the company, aluminium, titanium, molybdenum, nitinol and elgiloy.

The latest continuous improvement exercise has been in operation for six months and has involved collecting data on current operating parameters and reviewing what is working well and what could be improved.

This has seen the firm alter its chemistry settings and the introduction of twice daily process control checks, which have already resulted in a two per cent increase on right first time figures and the potential for a 10 per cent boost in throughput on certain products.

Mr Whateley added: “We are really pleased with the results of this latest exercise and we now have daily improvement meetings to ensure all work instructions and operating procedures are being reviewed.

“It has also allowed us to create a robust new product introduction system with technically challenging jobs and new processes for exotic materials never before etched.”

Advanced Chemical Etching, which is working towards the AS9100 aerospace quality standard, has made a number of key appointments to cope with recent expansion, including a new technical sales specialist and business development expert.