Craufurd Technology
Design is part of a strategic rethink aimed at securing higher margin business.
Background
Slough-based Crauford Technology was founded in 1949 to make pipework and ducting for the construction industry. Later its core business became secondary steel structures and also production lines assembled on site in factories.
Problem
The business started a strategic rethink to put more emphasis on its high-margin specialist architectural metalwork such as staircases, entrances and canopies, and stainless steel fabrication.
Chairman David Davies sums up the challenge: ‘We were long established but we weren’t using our skills base to best advantage. That meant we were standing still and needed to move on by improving margins and finding new customers and more challenging work.’
In particular, that new work includes manufacturing both architectural metalwork and the public art increasingly found in locations like city centres, corporate headquarters, parks and new housing developments. The company also wants to increase orders for specialist stainless steel fabrications, particularly in hygiene-sensitive sectors such as food processing, pharmaceuticals and brewing.
By putting more emphasis on these areas and attracting new clients like architects, developers, sculptors and local authorities, Craufurd hopes to increase turnover by a third from its current £3m.
Response
Craufurd started working with the Engineering Employers Federation on developing a new strategy. The EEF’s consultant, Neil Fedden, quickly saw that the business’s corporate identity needed to improve in line with its ambition to break into new markets. David Davies explains: ‘Instead of being just a metal worker we had to become an architectural engineer who can solve a client’s problem. The EEF said we needed design help and pointed us towards Designing Demand.’
Craufurd joined Designing Demand’s Generate service and worked with Design Associate James Duguid to define objectives and create a design brief to meet them. ‘The parameters for the brief were set by the strategic marketing plan, which David wrote with help from us,’ says Duguid. After a competitive pitch, the company’s existing designer, M4 Design, was contracted to deliver a new corporate identity.
The resulting work extends across stationery, brochures, signage, presentations and a new website, as well as a new showroom.
The programme has given Craufurd a deeper appreciation of how design can help it to transform its strategy and its place in the market. ‘Designing Demand has given us a steer in terms of where we should be going and how we should be doing it. It’s an umbrella for the work done by the consultants and specialists. It’s also been training for us in terms of catching up with how we should be selling ourselves.’
Impact
Part of Craufurd’s strategy change has seen the appointment of a new sales and marketing manager, who is targeting the architectural clients that hold the key to securing new, high-margin business. The new promotional materials are a key weapon in the sales drive.
Davies is clear about the benefits of Designing Demand. ‘It opened our eyes to the fact that we needed to be telling the world what we can do. We needed a sharper image because we were attracting a much more professional sector of the market. We need to double the number of customers and the level of turnover coming from them, whereas in the past we’ve tended to wait for the work to come to us. The work with the Design Council has showed us the level of excellence we need to achieve. It’s lifted our sights.’
Turnover is expected to increase by £1m and the business is planning to double factory space and boost staff numbers from 40 to 60.
David Davies added: ‘We’re already seeing the benefits. We’re starting to get the kind of inquiries we’ve been looking for. I urge anyone involved in business to look at their company with the help of something like the Designing Demand programme.’
David Davies, Chairman of Craufurd Technology Ltd, talks about how a new corporate identity has helped to reposition the company and attract higher value business. Watch the video: Windows Media Player (20Mb)