How a revitalised door maker is getting a handle on niche
markets
 As any entrepreneur worth his salt will verify, finding a niche
market is the key to positioning a business where it wants to be in
an increasingly complex and diverse commercial environment.
Identifying that niche, and understanding why competitors haven’t
been attracted to it, is no easy matter. Skilfully done, however, it
can make the difference between success and failure.
One company which has found its niche is the long-established Dundee
door maker McTavish Ramsay. Founded in 1864 as a packaging firm, it
has recently been re-invigorated by a management buyout team which
is pumping in new money and new ideas.
One area to target for group managing director Ken Shepherd is
increasing market share of a range of high specification, high
quality doorsets. These are specialised, ready-to-fit doors for
schools, hospitals and upper-market homes which are provided to the
client with all their associated furniture, including keyholes,
handles, glazed panels and frames and facings.
McTavish Ramsay predominantly manufactures fire doors – indeed they
make up the great bulk of its output – but doorsets are where
Shepherd sees future growth coming from. He said: “The overall
market including doors is worth nearly £300 million in the UK alone.
We only need to make small inroads into that market and it will make
a significant difference to our productivity and profitability.”
The definition of a niche business is one that is addressing a need
for a product or service that is not being addressed by mainstream
providers. Now Shepherd is well aware that there are other,
sometimes major, players in the architectural door-set sector. He is
acutely conscious that to carve out his niche, he has to make
Mctavish Ramsay significantly better than them.
So his modus operandi is to focus on areas where the industry as a
whole has been lacking in the past: quality, delivery, communication
and customer satisfaction.
The first step has been to make sure that his team of highly skilled
craftsmen at his factory on the eastern outskirts of Dundee has the
tools it needs to do the job. To that end, he and his fellow
directors have invested about £800,000 in new plant and machinery.
The cash injection enabled the purchase of industry-leading
equipment such as an Osama press line, a GMC double ended tenoner, a
Scheer panel saw and a Weber top and bottom sander. The company is
also going to install an additional state-of-the-art Marzoni CNC
machine for precision work.
Next, he has dramatically streamlined internal processes to slash
lead times. Under the old systems it could take up to three weeks
from the receipt of an order to its transmission to the factory
floor. That can now be completed within hours, as soon as the
customer gives the go-ahead.
Under the previous regime, the customer would hear virtually nothing
from the factory between the moment it placed its order and
delivery. To increase communication flow, McTavish Ramsay has put
six project managers in place. Their job is to take ownership of
contracts, be a single point of contact for customers and to keep
customers aware of what is happening with their job.
Shepherd said: “We are also comprehensively re-organising our
logistics operation, so that the good work done here on reducing
lead times isn’t frustrated elsewhere. We will move towards using
one logistics company on an exclusive basis, so that we can build up
a mutual understanding of each other’s needs.
His immediate target is to increase turnover to £10m and continue a
rolling programme of productivity and efficiency gains. He said: “We
want to expand our customer base nationally with a strategy of sales
through distributors, who are already recognising the excellence of
our product.
“Doorsets make so much sense for architects, specifiers and
estimators. The precision of factory finishing – especially now that
we have installed state-of-the-art machinery – means that parts not
only fit and match exactly but also ensure regulatory compliance.
“The time this can save both in the design process and in on-site
fitting is a significant factor right across the construction
sector.”
Email:
michaelcrawford@blueprintmedia.co.uk
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