When suppliers become partners

By Ian Latimer, managing director of Emmegi (UK).

Many fabricators only buy a new machine from us once every five years or so, yet they still rightly very much consider us to be their machinery partner.

At the FIT Show, it was noticeable just how many of the visitors on our stand were existing customers – some had ordered machines from us very recently but others had bought from us as far back as 2010 and just wanted to meet up and talk about how well their machines were working.

It’s obvious to me that many almost see themselves as members of an unofficial owners’ club, and I think that’s because we have shown a real willingness to invest in building long-term relationships with them.

There’s obviously a degree of brand loyalty behind these partnerships – companies who buy Emmegi machines are invariably impressed with the quality, durability and performance, and come to us whenever they want to expand or renew their machinery because they have faith that Emmegi is constantly making the investments in product development needed to keep our machines ahead of the pack.

But, it’s also about the Emmegi team here in the UK being responsive and efficient, and demonstrating even to customers who might only have bought from us once how much we value their business. We’ve got a team of sales engineers who help ensure that customers always get the best advice when they’re choosing a machine to suit their needs, and we’ve also got expert technicians and service engineers operating across the UK, and a great spare parts set-up at our Coventry HQ to look after them once the machine has been supplied.

As a result, we have customers like Alitex in Sussex, for example, that now has eight Emmegi machining centres bought over a period of 10 years, and Made for Trade in Stockton that has bought six machines over the past year alone.
There are lots more companies in the UK of course that are fully stocked with Emmegi machines including ATB, Charles Henshaw, Focus, JPF Systems and Window Warehouse.

Others have shown that they are prepared to replace or add to their Emmegi machines without looking anywhere else. Selectaglaze in St Albans, for example, recently purchased a Phantomatic X4 machining centre to replace its Phantomatic T4A, and Astra Windows in Bolton invested in a series saws, CNC machining centres, and taping machines over the past five years relying entirely on us to supply and support them.

As we saw at the FIT Show, once customers become members of that virtual owners’ club, they see the long-term benefits and their loyalty is something we never take for granted.