GripIt® Fixings: Made in the UK
24 May 2016
Here Jordan Daykin, managing director at GripIt® Fixings, talks about the humble beginnings of the company’s manufacturing journey and the key benefits of being able to offer products ‘Made in the UK’.
Made in the UK products are something customers believe in and trust; they know they can rely on the quality and craftsmanship of the products. This is one of the reasons it is important to us to be one of the companies to hold such a prestigious accolade. We want to make sure we meet expectations and offer the best quality products that we can.
It has always been very important for GripIt® to have its own manufacturing facilities and this is something we were able to achieve through the investment from a UK television programme called ‘Dragons Den’. Before this investment, we had been outsourcing to other UK manufacturers, but
since then we have been able to grow our headquarters and on-site manufacturing facilities, which we are looking to further expand to meet international demand from countries including the USA and Australia.
We have already raised the money for further investment through ‘crowd funding’, which was a great success as were able to raise GB£2 million, half a million more than our target, in just five days. This is going to help us continue with our rapid expansion and keep our manufacturing in the UK and on-site – using the very latest machinery.
Being able to manufacture on-site has made managing the supply chain very simple. The team is based only a few minutes away from where the products are being made, so if there is an issue we are there on hand to communicate and fix it quickly. Also it has meant we are now more in control of how quickly we can get our products to the market – this is vital to our continued growth. At the moment we are producing one million fixings each month, which we’re looking to increase to three million by the end of the year, and we now have the capabilities to increase manufacturing based on demand. It is a very exciting time for us.
There are so many benefits to having a product that is made in the UK, not only from a customer facing perspective but for how you run your business, and this is why I am adamant that GripIt Fixings continues its design and production on British soil.
