Insight

Belonging to the Emile Maurin Group, French-based ACTON SAS is committed to supplying a high-quality and quick service to the European fixing market – which has become even more important over the last 18 months.

For more than 35 years, ACTON has offered a wide range of more than 15,000 stainless steel fixing products – all in stock – with fast delivery being the company’s main goal.

ACTON is able to offer this high-quality quick service thanks to the close relationship it has with its customers, as well as key partners. This enables the company’s sales team to understand the needs of the market instantaneously and ensure the purchasing department quickly sources the necessary products.

Thanks to the hard work of its staff, the range of ACTON products has continuously increased to meet the interests of distributors in Europe and overseas. For instance, for several years, ACTON’s range of woodscrews has been influenced by the demands and changes within the building industry – with hundreds of new items, specialised for wood assembly, being created and proposed in different grades of stainless steel (AISI 410, A2 and A4).

The importance of ACTON’s high-quality and efficient service was underlined in reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the market seeming to boom everywhere around the world. “Level of stock and fast delivery have never been so important,” explains Philippe Purgy, director at ACTON. “This made the daily task of the purchasing department even more demanding, as they needed to adapt to the new challenges of this uncertain period.”

Philippe adds: “These challenges include material availability, which has been impacted by the huge demand for many different industries; as well as the availability of product transportation, especially freight ships, which are so limited that the expedition of containers has become a new sort of ‘tough sport’ for buyers and forwarding agents. This unusual situation has changed the standard procedures of both our purchasing and logistic arrivals departments, which has led to us employing a new buyer and several warehouse employees.”

These challenges within the market have naturally led to the trend of prices increasing – following the level of the global demand. “As a business, we needed to adapt our price list and ensure clear and efficient communication, which our customers appreciate,” states Philippe. “Thanks to us being part of a strong and flexible organisation, as a company we were able to support our customers throughout this stormy period.”

Another area that has been impacted by recent events has been the digitalisation of sales, which has pushed up to new levels for ACTON. “Thanks to the improvements and steps we have taken since the arrival of our marketing manager in 2019, we have been able to adapt to this new way of purchasing for many customers,” comments Philippe. “We are predicting that the turnover of the webshop will have tripled in two years and will represent an interesting mean of communication for many new customers.”

Philippe concludes: The goal of Acton is to always improve. We do this through updating processes and developing our sales within the market using the highest qualified staff, whilst reducing our environmental presence through new rules and procedures.”