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Case Study: Hymid Multi-Shot Ltd

There was a time in 2008 when things looked bleak for Hymid Multi-Shot Ltd.  Not now. This summer the specialist plastic injection moulding company was awarded coveted Beacon Status; it recently won the prestigious Business Development and Change Management Award at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Manufacturing Excellence Awards; it turned over £2.2m last year and aspires to £5m turnover by 2018; this September, it has celebrated a year in its new 18,000 square foot fit-for-purpose manufacturing space in Torquay.

Chairman Colin Spencer Halsey believes it is well on the road to becoming a world-class company, with a programme of continuous improvement.

Originally brought in as Chairman in 2008 to help the ailing business, he is delighted to have been invited by the Hi Tech Forum to present at the Manufacturing, Technology and Innovation Conference in Torbay. He will deliver a 15 minute case study on Hymid, titled ‘Making Our Vision Happen’.

The company has been a member of the Torbay Hi Tech Forum since its inception in early 2011 and has exhibited at the Conference every year since.

Vickie Broadbent, Marketing Manager explained : “The Torbay Hi Tech Forum is an invaluable platform upon which to share best practice with like-minded, forward-thinking engineering companies in the Bay. There is a growing hi tech sector within the Bay – we have found that being members of the Forum enables us to promote the sector and not just keep skills in the region, but build on those skills.”

Andy Tettmar, Technical Sales Director, agrees. He is proud to promote the hi tech sector in his capacity as a Torbay Ambassador. Invited by the Torbay Development Agency, he comments, “Being a Torbay Ambassador means the region’s engineering, technology and manufacturing companies have a collective voice being heard at a national level. Torbay is not just about tourism!” As a result of this accolade, Andy is no stranger to invitations to Westminster to help promote the region as a Centre of Excellence for hi tech manufacturing.

Vickie added: “What really provided the environment for growth was taking on a dedicated Sales Office at the Torbay Innovation Centre, away from the hustle and bustle of the factory and the typical everyday production issues any manufacturing business faces. Our old site in Brixham simply wasn’t conducive to nurturing our ambitious growth plan: it was cramped, noisy and badly laid out. The office at the Innovation Centre enabled the sales team to concentrate on and implement our marketing strategy - doubling our turnover, which paved the way for our move to Torquay. Taking on this satellite office gave clear focus to our vision.”

The company, which provides project management and mould tool procurement in addition to injection moulding, is renowned in the UK as one of only eight manufacturing specialists of two-shot plastic injection moulding - using two materials in one process to produce technically advanced components.

“We have positioned ourselves in the sector as high value, low volume producers – most of the industry is the opposite,” Colin Spencer Halsey explains. The specialism has put it in the top 30 of about 930 UK injection moulders, working on a Business to Business model with UK based clients who sell their products globally in fields ranging widely from medical and electronic to test and measurement.

Much of the strategic positioning of the business was achieved through work with the Manufacturing Advisory Service, “a constant source of support and help,” and its Chinese supply chain links were developed into a highly successful model managed by founder and Business Development Director Mike Wilkins, who spends almost half the year there overseeing mould tool builds, trials and validation.

Automation at the Torquay site has also been part of the change process, with two new robotic capability machines acquired this year and another planned for 2014.

“Automation certainly doesn’t mean getting rid of people, rather it’s about training them so that we can add value and increase our capability to produce more in less time,” says Colin Spencer Halsey. The original workforce has been retained and with an expanded team, employee numbers stand at 33.

“Even in the darkest days we kept our workforce and have had their support to do things differently. Manufacturing and engineering are quite traditional, inward looking – but as a company our people’s openness and willingness to change, to do things in different ways, has been a key factor in creating the platform for growth and changing the fortunes of the business.”

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Case Study: Oclaro Inc

Over the last thirty years Oclaro Inc. has transformed from a small optical component company into an industry leader. Through a rich history of mergers and acquisitions, the company has amassed an extensive technology and product portfolio – and a recent merger with Opnext Inc saw it enter its fiscal year in 2013 as one of the world’s largest suppliers of optical components, modules and subsystems.

The company’s roots go back a long way at Paignton, Devon, with over a hundred people involved in Research and Development (R & D); designing components for communications lasers, and working closely with its sister site located at Towcester, Northamptonshire. 

Stephen Marks, a Programme Manager for New Product Introduction in Paignton, sees membership of the Hi Tech Forum as an important part of supporting the Torbay Development Agency’s work. The Conference this year is a highly valuable opportunity to engage with stakeholders in the local area.

Oclaro also attended last year’s Conference and another member of the team this year includes Dr Phil Mitchell, Senior Applications Engineer. Along with Stephen Marks, Phil Mitchell is one of the Hi Tech Forum Torbay Ambassadors, whose role is to promote Torbay as a business location; enhance Oclaro’s profile; and help to influence key decision makers to realise Torbay’s potential.

Through the Hi Tech Forum, Dr Mitchell has been forging links with local schools (including Cuthbert Mayne, his own former school), to make them aware of opportunities to work in the industry, and relating this to their own physics syllabus.

The company’s last annual report commented: “Our future success depends, in part, on our ability to attract and retain key personnel. Competition for highly skilled technical personnel is extremely intense...”

Said Stephen Marks: “We have a long history in this area and we are really keen for people to come and talk to us at the Conference, to understand what our company is doing and understand how it plays a significant role in the industry because of the skills we have here.”

Like many of hi tech companies in the Torbay area, Oclaro was created based on the legacy of Nortel (Northern Telecom); having started originally as the laser division of Standard Telephones and Cables (STC), subsequently being bought by Nortel, and then sold on to Bookham Technology. The company then later changed identity and expanded through acquisition to become Oclaro, with its corporate headquarters located in the US.

The company today is one of the largest providers of lasers and optical components, modules and subsystems for the optical communications, industrial, and consumer laser markets, directly affecting the way the world works, lives and plays. 

As well as in the UK, its cutting-edge R & D and chip fabrication takes place in the US, Europe, Israel and Japan, with both in-house and contract manufacturing sites in China and Malaysia, supported by design, sales and service organisations around the world.    

At Paignton, in addition to its vital R & D role within the company, financial operations, product management, customer services and commodity management complete the roles people perform on the site.

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