Insight

By placing fastener manufacturers first, Martijn Wirken, CEO of newly established Aramfix, believes the fastener market is ready for ‘the next step’ – a worldwide database of fasteners. Here, Martijn tells us about this new adventure and why he’s making global eCommerce easily available to the fastener industry.

Let’s start by looking a little differently at the world. For some people, our earth is enormous and for others it’s a journey with different approaches and cultures. Distance is a factor that can create difficulties, but it can also create opportunities – it just takes a little imagination. If raw materials are readily available in a certain area of the world, those countries probably process the raw material to steel grades more efficiently than anywhere else on the planet. Every manufacturer has its own strength. Making fasteners, for example, requires a lot of different disciplines and equipment.

This is where Aramfix comes in. Aramfix makes global fastener eCommerce possible and easily accessible. Traditionally we believe that customers do not search for a manufacturer, they just search for a fastener with a specific standard or quality. Aramfix bridges this gap and connects potential customers to the right manufacturer once they have found their product.

Every change in the market including potential tariffs, raw material costs, freight, Covid-19, etc, will influence the behaviour of a purchaser and a manufacturer. A lot of purchasers are focused on just a certain selection of suppliers. At Aramfix we connect companies with manufacturers from the USA, Europe, Asia, Brazil and Australia – creating a worldwide supply chain. This has many benefits to the registered customers. For instance, if shipping freight costs are at an extremely high-level, products can be sourced closer to home.

Manufacturers registered with Aramfix are selected with a great deal of care and a ‘Code of Conduct’ must be adhered to. We also encourage our manufacturers to be innovative, help them automate and reduce their costs, as well as educate them to continuously improve and reduce delivery times and set a high-quality standard. This worldwide database of fasteners gives insight in the market, whilst operating independently and bringing knowledge to the next level of international trade. Aramfix also has an inbuilt tool using intelligent algorithms to enable its manufacturers to adjust their prices in a single click.

The whole structure of related items are then immediately recalculated and updated, which is unlike ERP systems that normally require manual price adjustments –  visible immediately to users. Speed and time are also crucial, especially in a highly competitive market such as the fastener industry. This is why Aramfix believes the customer needs to be able to see actual prices, stock, as well as delivery times – any time and anywhere.

Distributors have developed the skill of information and logistics very well but this normally only works on a much smaller footprint and often for local sales. If you are a larger customer, you need to login to various webshops to check suppliers conditions or you are at risk of being stuck in a fixed contract. This is time-consuming.

To add to this, the Aramfix global fastener eCommerce platform is also connected to the global FOREX market, helping to eliminate currency risks for both the customer and manufacturer. The customer will pay in their own currency and this is automatically converted if necessary. To avoid price differentiation, there is a built-in short time delay.

Existing relations between manufacturers and customers can be easily updated through the contract module. Behind the scenes, the manufacturer can connect with the specific customer for an additional discount to the standard prices. The customer can login and will see anytime, anywhere, the actual prices. The manufacturer just has to keep their steel and logistic prices updated for the best competitive rates.

The aim is for customers ordering from Aramfix to have one vendor but the benefit of a thousand manufacturers’ stock – meaning logistics can be optimised. Aramfix therefore offers various shipping methods and can control the entire transportation including all related documents and customs declarations.

The Aramfix team has extensive experience in fastener manufacturing and surface treatment, working with global multinational companies for over 15 years. Its employees are also skilled mechanical and software engineers to ensure a high-level of security and data according to GDPR.

This article marks the launch of the platform for manufacturers to make their own profile and connect their price calculations. Then, from September 2021, the platform will officially be opened and an Aramfix App will be available on Google Play or Apple store. Distributors can already request to cooperate and from 2022 they can join the Aramfix Distribution Network (ADN) beginning with a distributor in each country. Once the Aramfix platform is established in Europe, the plan is to extend it to the USA.

Aramfix is the next generation fastener eCommerce platform – it enables you to control the market and be ‘one step ahead’ of the competition.