subcon scene
‘The best Subcon in ten years’ - that was the verdict of Paul Darwent of Components
Worldwide and Mini Gears at the close of this year’s exhibition. ‘We needed more staff
to deal with all the enquiries’ he added. While, according to Simon Hault of Steelmans
Broaches, the show was ‘ten times better than we ever expected’.
Subcon success to
the power of ten
Core visitor number have increased by 20%
since 2006 - and it was standing room only at
the seminar sessions
THE sentiments of Paul Darwent and
Simon Hault were echoed by visitors and
exhibitors throughout the exhibition. Visitors
came to find new suppliers and exhibitors went
away with millions of pounds of potential
business. Visitor numbers were up - showing a
20% increase in core visitors since 2006; and
around 75% of exhibitors say they have already
written significant business as a direct result of
participating. Underlying this success is an
active and thriving UK manufacturing base
that relies on outsourcing both core and noncore
components. Indeed, the trend is for the
amount and complexity of subcontracted work
to continue to grow.
Research by Centaur Exhibitions, the
organiser of Subcon 2008, showed that the
prime reason for visitors attending was to find
new suppliers, and that 40% of them said that
the proportion of work they outsourced would
increase - and 35% of them said that the
complexity of the work they were outsourcing
would increase too. Only 8% expected the
amount of work they subcontract to reduce.
The visitors found what they wanted; 86% said
that they would come back next year and 81%
said that they would recommend Subcon to a
colleague.
UK suppliers take work from low-cost
economies
The perception that buyers are only interested
in low-cost economies was shown to be only
part of the story; a convincing majority of
visitors agreed that there is a future for
manufacturing in the UK and that British
subcontractors can be competitive. Nearly a
quarter had bought work back to the UK that
had previously gone overseas - a further 11%
were thinking about it. And not all highvolume
work is going overseas either.
Chris Ferrar of MSP (Turned Parts)
commented that he had been pleasantly
surprised at how busy it been. On the first day
70 MWP july 2008
alone he had good enquiries regarding high
volume contracts - for over a million
components - on parts that the company had
made in the past. The sheer volume of
enquiries was the most impressive aspect of the
exhibition for many UK exhibitors - with some
of them unprepared for the amount of business
that could come from it. ‘We have got more
leads to follow up on than we can actually cope
with,’ said Graham Durnall of Albion Springs.
‘It has exceeded all my expectations.’ This view
was echoed by Terry Adams of Stockfield
Manufacturing, who commented: ‘We've had
13 strong enquiries in the month after the
Show. It’s been good - so good we’re fighting to
get out from under.’
And Simon Jones of PRV Engineering had
the same pleasant problem. ‘We have had more
RFQs than we could cope with - a bit
overwhelming really - we have had 150
drawings to quote for from sectors including
marine, industrial handling, packaging
manufacture and detection equipment. We had
one enquiry worth £6million for machined
components, and have already had orders,’ he
said.
Sophisticated sourcing strategies
That isn’t to say that companies aren’t
outsourcing to low-cost companies - most of
them are - but many are no longer trying to
send all of their production offshore as
purchasing strategies have become more
sophisticated. A lot of companies that are
sourcing from all over the world are still
looking for UK suppliers - whether to give
security and flexibility of supply as part of a
dual sourcing strategy, or as prime suppliers in
their own right. Commenting on this shift in
emphasis, Subcon Event Director Jon Hughes
said: ‘The subcontract manufacturing sector
continues to thrive and grow as new supply
chain strategies develop, new suppliers come
on line and existing suppliers develop more
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