“We’ve got a great story here, we just don’t really tell it to anybody,” admits Steve Brett, production director for Nottinghamshire-based Lamtek.
For the past 35 years, the trade-only carcass supplier has been more than happy to fly under the radar for the most part, with MD Nik Teal explaining: “We’ve been in a privileged position until now where we haven’t needed to spend very much on marketing.
“Historically, we’ve always been busy with the clients we already had, so we simply didn’t need to do it.”
However, Lamtek recently made an ambitious investment into its future, which saw it acquire another warehouse next door.
Now, the company boasts an impressive combined total of 125,000 sq ft of manufacturing space across its three Nottinghamshire sites, and is looking to put that space to good use by growing its business. Just on a single-shift model, the Lamtek team believe they’ve already doubled production capacity from 5,000 cabinets a week to an impressive 10,000.
“Our lead times are incredibly efficient as well,” adds Brett. “We can get stock out within five days, and special orders within two weeks. Not many people our size can do lead times like that.”
Given the challenging state of the market, many would likely see this as a time to be cautious, especially when most manufacturers are looking to protect their assets instead of pursuing new opportunities so openly.
However, as director Russell Teal explains: “We got to a point where we were up to maximum capacity and couldn’t store any more. So what do you do? You either stay where you are and become static, or you can push forward, make an investment, put your head on the chopping block and give it a go.”
Growing presence
Actually, according to Brett, the wider market downturn has actually presented Lamtek with a unique opportunity to grow. “Quite a lot of manufacturers are looking to outsource now,“ he explains, “so we’ve had a few enquires in the last few weeks. With the cost of running a kitchen business, manufacturing costs are going through the roof, so other manufacturers come to us.”
The investment is also allowing Lamtek to explore other markets outside of just kitchens and bedrooms, such as hotels and student housing. However, Lamtek says it’s still looking to focus its growth on building relationships with new kitchen distributors, merchants, developers, and retailers. And for what it’s worth, it seems like it has a genuinely innovative offering for the market.
For instance, one of its key products is the Rapid Cab – a cam, pin, and dowel pre-insertion system that Lamtek says can be installed in under two minutes. Orders are packed in assembly order, so they can be built straight from the box with ease.
To help get the word out about what makes it unique, Lamtek recently appointed Tom Clews to be its sales and marketing director, supported by Niamh Logan in the role of marketing executive.
“We’ve revamped the website recently, and even just by doing that we’ve seen our new leads jumping up,” explains Clews,
“Outside of that, we’re looking to also grow our presence on social media, so don’t be surprised when you hear more from us in the next few months and we really start telling our story.”
“Now we’ve got extra capacity, we need to fill it,” concludes MD Nik Teal. “For us to have been so successful for these past 35 years without having said very much, we clearly must be doing something right. But now it’s time for us to come out from the shadows.”