XYZ: changes at the top, but business as usual

Following the retirement of company founder and previous Managing Director Nigel Atherton after 40 years at the helm of XYZ Machine Tools, Martin Burton knew he had a tough act to follow. Fortunately, with 35 years of his own experience at XYZ to call upon, he was well placed to take up the challenge.

“I joined the business in 1990 as a third-year apprentice fitter on the shop floor,” he says. “A little while later I went out on the road as a service engineer, then subsequently became XYZ’s first applications engineer.”

Shortly after, with business booming, Nigel wanted to concentrate more on company management, asking Martin to step into sales.

“I had big shoes to fill on Nigel’s sales patch, but I wanted to test myself,” he says. “It was a great opportunity to learn another side of the business.”

Further promotions followed into management positions, first as head of production, where key tasks included the introduction of even more stringent quality procedures, then as UK sales manager.

“From there, Nigel steadily began inviting me to meetings, getting me familiar with other aspects of the company and taking more business-oriented decisions. So, I’ve effectively been growing into my current Managing Director role for the past four years.”

Changing of the guard

Around 12 months ago, when Nigel wanted to step back, a management buyout opportunity presented itself. It was almost a natural progression for Martin Burton and Chris Hellier (now Commercial Director) to take on the company’s ownership.

“Despite the change, we wanted it to be business as usual, which means continuing to prioritise customer service. Nigel had run a very successful company for 40 years, so any dramatic shifts in direction were never part of the plan. Although I have my own management style, I actually think in a similar way to Nigel, so it works quite well. I’m very intent on growth and we’re looking to the future via some really good improvements for the benefit of both existing and new customers.”

Forthcoming initiatives include a growing focus on aftersales, boosting what XYZ describes as the “customer experience” over conceivably many years of machine ownership. The company is set to a launch a ‘My XYZ’ area on its website, with customers able to access their own portal that will host details of all their XYZ machines, including service status and logs of any previous questions or requests. Customers will also be able to raise service jobs, from a routine service to a breakdown, and communicate directly with technicians.

“Any customer seeking support with an XYZ machine can access the portal to see if one of our technicians can resolve the issue online there and then,” says Martin. “If not, they can also use the portal to book an engineer visit. It will accelerate the whole process, with rollout to customers beginning over the next few months.”

Tour de force

Further new initiatives include the already launched virtual factory tour, saving the time required to visit one of XYZ’s six UK showrooms. Virtual visitors can either take the tour alone or have an XYZ representative join them live online to answer questions.

XYZ is also growing its headcount by recruiting a number of trainees to key departments such as service, sales and production.

“It’s tough to find skilled people, but we’re taking a proactive stance by training our own people, helping them become fully qualified to work on our machines. We’re passionate about nurturing the next generation of skilled professionals, both in engineering roles and business support services, not just for XYZ but for the betterment of the industry.”

From a machine perspective, new models are on the near horizon to spur further growth, including the KMX 2500 bed mill.

“The KMX 2500 will prove ideal for the education sector with its ProtoTRAK KMX control, which offers a great combination of price, features and ease of use. It will also be a great choice for machine shops looking to take their first steps into CNC milling, providing a more cost-effective solution.”

New five-axis machine

At the other end of the spectrum, XYZ has plans to launch a new five-axis CNC machining centre, a more compact model that will complement its highly successful UMC-5X. The new machine will house a front or side loading 400 mm diameter rotary trunnion table within the footprint of a standard three-axis vertical machining centre. Overcoming the challenge of diminishing machine shop space, XYZ says the new five-axis machining centre will arrive in the coming months and carry a very attractive price. Behind that, the company has a further four machine models either in design or at design concept stage for introduction over the coming two years.

“We’re in continuous dialogue with our customers to uncover the demands of tomorrow from both a machine and service perspective,” says Martin.

Away from the UK, XYZ will continue growing its operations overseas, particularly in mainland Europe, where the company has seen impressive gains over the past six months.

“We’re now looking to expand our sales and service team in key countries like Poland and establish a foothold in European countries where we currently have no representation.”

All this helps build on what is currently a very successful period for XYZ Machine Tools.

“At current order levels we expect to exceed last year’s revenue figures, which is very pleasing for our first year of ownership. Looking ahead, we attend regular industry forecasting meetings and the general consensus suggests there’s growth to be had over the coming 3-4 years and beyond, which is long overdue to be honest as the industry has seen some challenging years in the recent past. We’re now seeing market confidence return to encouraging levels, steadily replacing the investment stagnancy evident within the manufacturing sector over the last few years.”