Farécla

Source: Manufacturing Digital

Date :11/04/2008 15:25:30

With a strategy to expand both its product portfolio and global reach, Farécla is a company that has a busy year ahead. Exec finds out more

Written by Lucy Mowatt and Produced by Ben Weaver

Since it took on a new MD (Andy Ducker) Farécla has been given the remit to grow its business and product portfolio. In line with that, it has developed in new markets and expanded its reach. Elizabeth Lown, the company’s new Operations Manager and Jason Payne, Head of Marketing, explain to Exec how the company has grown since it was set up in Ware, Hertfordshire in 1934.

“The principal market that Farécla has been in for about 50 years is the car refinish market, which is intrinsically a very slow, flat market in many areas of the world. Being such a dominant player in that market, it obviously made a lot of sense strategically to look at where else we could apply our expertise in terms of market opportunity and value chain,” Jason explains, talking of the decision to encourage growth.

Having looked to see where else it could apply its expertise, Farécla now offers compounds and applicators to private customers as well as OEMs and the marine industry. In terms of supply chain, this has led to evaluating direct supply opportunities to end users where appropriate.

Business Improvement

Although there have been significant changes in terms of product range, Farécla is still a privately owned, family company, which is very much reflected in the treatment of its employees. Its current workforce is made up of 70 people, although this figure is expected to increase by at least ten more people in 2008.

“One of the advantages of the size of this company and the ownership structure, in terms of being a private limited company, is that it has a firm family feel about it,” Elizabeth says. “Certainly, the owners are very interested in the people that are working for them and the development of those people.”

Elizabeth is certainly maintaining this ethos, driving the implementation of lean procedures and a Business Improvement NVQ. Having previously been involved with implementing lean techniques at another organisation, she joined the company in 2007 and started to look for opportunities to improve business processes, which she has done by engaging employees across the business. The Business Improvement NVQ that has been introduced is a “cross functional course”, which includes people from across Farécla.

“Part of the course is that they have to implement three projects to drive improvement,” she explains, saying that these will be independent initiatives which will be put in place after being taught the theory behind lean techniques.

This is not the only way that Elizabeth is pushing efficiency at Faréela though. “I’m working on it at one level from bottom upwards, but also looking it from a top down approach,” she continues. “For example, we’re working with the Manufacturing Advisory Service to take a top level view of our services.”

Global expansion

This year, Farécla is making significant investments not just in existing capabilities, but in increasing capacity to meet demand. “We are looking to replace and modernise existing equipment, but we’re also looking at what equipment we can bring in to give us better efficiency,” Elizabeth elaborates. “Additionally, we are investing in a new location in Hertfordshire - where we will house our UK division from an office point of view as well as housing our UK warehouse for distribution.”

However, these are not the first steps Farécla has made towards expansion; in 2006 Farécla Inc was established in the US to take advantage of the opportunities overseas. Jason explains: “It’s a big market and a big opportunity for us; we have to be very targeted with what we do because of the sheer size of the market... compared to our market in the UK, is significantly larger.

The marketing for the whole company is centralised in the UK, which Jason was keen to explain as Head of Marketing. He says that Farécla is involved “in all aspects of the marketing mix”. In markets around the world, Farécla establishes relationships with the press and runs promotional campaigns to raise brand awareness.

“We held an exclusive conference with our distributors last year in Bangkok to bring them up to date with where were as a company, what the new product portfolio was going to be and to make sure we were talking to them about their needs as well as ours,” Jason says. The event was such a success that Farécla is considering running a conference every two years in order to maintain relationships.

Indeed, the Far East, Asia Pacific and Eastern Europe are Farécla’s biggest markets, where its products can be applied to a number of surfaces, both in the automotive and marine markets. “It’s all about bringing surfaces from a particular condition to a superior state,” Jason says, which means that Farécla’s products can be used for numerous applications, for glass and plastic composite materials in numerous industries.

Customer service

Farécla has a strong R&D department, which is constantly looking at new compounds for all markets. The Ware site has its own laboratories as well as strategic relationships with other organisations and experts which nurture the development of new technology. This strength is really reflected in the diversity of the product portfolio which includes a nanotechnology car care range. These form a protective layer across the car and a repellent surface.

This innovation drive has really helped Farécla to overcome the problems it has seen with counterfeit goods in the Far East. Elizabeth also points out that Farécla’s after sales care service really helps to overcome these competitors. “We have very good technical support for our customers, in terms of helping them with training... it’s important to us that having got the first sale we follow that up with the level of service afterwards as well,” she says. The Farécla Inc website even features training videos and tips in order to ensure that customers really are achieving the best finish they can.

Although much of the company’s business is secured through a strong distribution network, it can offer a same day delivery service for the end customers it serves. Elizabeth explains that the company has a very high success rate in achieving this turnaround. All of Farécla’s products are also accompanied by the ISO 9001 quality certificate, which is overseen by the company’s Quality Manager.

The firm also obtained the ISO 14001 certificate at the beginning of 2008, having made numerous changes in its operations last year. As well as reducing its energy consumption, it has looked to source materials locally, while identifying which suppliers minimise their environmental impact.

“We have an active programme on site to eliminate things like silica from our products, which has a health and safety connotation to it as well as an environmental implication,” Elizabeth states. The company has also been moving towards developing low foam products which minimise surfactant contamination of water that goes into the waste water system.

Elizabeth concludes by explaining that Farécla is constantly evaluating what is good for the environment against what is good for the business. All developments have to fit in with the strategy of expansion in the automotive refinish market, both within in the UK and globally, while also diversifying the business in new areas. With such a determined strategy, Farécla looks set for a busy year.

Click here to view the corporate brochure on Farécla