Insight

Italian wholesaler King SpA – a ‘one stop shop’ for high-quality, reliable and durable stainless steel fasteners – is currently in the midst of a digital transformation, with the company investing to improve its business processes and provide a better service to customers.

For more than 50 years King has been at the forefront of the standard stainless steel fasteners and bolts market, steadily growing in Italy, and abroad, thanks to the quality of its products and the speed at which it responds to requests.

“Working to fully meet the expectations of each individual customer is definitely challenging,” states the management of King SpA. “However, achieving the goal is almost more satisfying than finalising the business itself, which becomes the natural consequence once the customer has the solution they need.”

Guided by this realisation, King has looked to bring to life a management system designed in-house and fine-tuned specifically to ensure 100% satisfaction of each and every customer. “The program is calibrated to well defined and strict corporate standards but tailored to the personal expectations and needs of each individual customer,” underlines the management. “In addition, our bolts, nuts, screws, and other stainless steel supplies, are designed with high-quality materials and meet strict manufacturing standards.”

To add to this, and with a view to maximise customer satisfaction, King has also initiated a total quality programme to ensure the excellence of the products it offers, including chemical and dimensional aspects. “This ensures that each product undergoes a dimensional analysis that certifies its adequate compliance with the reference standards in terms of lengths, diameters, impressions, and threads, with each product analysed with an X-ray spectrometer that allows the detection of the main chemical elements that compose them,” points out the management. “This means that every product marketed by King is guaranteed to be 100% stainless steel and DIN compliant.”

In an ever changing market, where technology occupies a primary place in customer satisfaction, and where offering a quality product in a short time has become a prerequisite, King has also developed an online system for accessing a shortlist of customised services. This includes an online shop for purchasing products and requesting quotations – with the aim of getting closer to its customers and creating a new system that could be the frontier of online sales; a tracking system for purchased products; a recall system for all documentation when reconstructing the procurement history; as well as a system for viewing the statistical trend of orders.

The Italian wholesaler is also making significant investments in order to increase its product range, as well as improve its automation in the search for the best logistical performance. “We have introduced new MRP and CRM systems that are allowing us to grow significantly, which has also led to us hiring many new professionals,” mentions the management. “We are able to further meet the needs of our customers thanks to our digital transformation and investments, especially within our sales department, which has allowed us to grow significantly. As a business we will continue to work hard, adapt to changes whilst adopting new technologies, as well as constantly invest to improve our performance, products and service.”