With a combined experience in the fastener industry of over 30 years, the ARK Group of companies – Rivco, Arpel and Kamtech – is able to combine competitive pricing across a complete range of quality rivets – rivet nuts, structural rivets, and associated tooling – with technical and engineering support, to deliver a full service offering.
The structure of ARK Group enables its UK-based trading companies to operate in an exclusive supply arrangement – with the companies holding all the manufacturing licence agreements with the overseas factories, so they can manufacture in volumes that are most cost-effective. By working together, the ARK Group of companies can also provide forecast information to production planning in order to make every attempt to minimise lead times. Optimised reorder levels allow the movement of palletised finished goods to be shipped in the most cost-effective way by utilising full container deliveries by sea freight.
“We are a single point of contact for our customers who value the distribution supply chain,” states Jessica Auld, marketing manager at the ARK Group of companies. “We provide comprehensive product catalogues to support customers in answering the technical questions asked by their customers. We also offer tooling demonstrations to support our customers – with technicians that service the tooling – and we have the ability to offer tool hire to customers that need short term one off requirements. All of these offerings have been driven by listening to customer demands and reacting positively to market requirements.”
The ARK Group of companies is always assessing the market, looking out for changing patterns and trends to make sure it can adapt and perfect its service offering. “There have been changes in demand for specific materials, with more demand for stainless steel in A2 and more recently A4 marine grade,” mentions Jessica. “Demand for higher quality rivet products, with the development of the structural high strength rivets, as well as the pin and collar two piece riveting solutions, has also been prevalent. We have responded by ensuring our product portfolio is inclusive of market trends and we have the largest standard range, ex-stock in the UK.”
Jessica adds: “We have also seen decisions made by European brand manufacturers to move manufacturing and stock facilities to different territories. These big brand manufacturers have also moved focus away from the general industrial sector targeting the big three markets – automotive, aerospace and electronics. This change has affected the market significantly and has allowed ARK to move into a gap in the market, supporting the general industrial sector with pricing, stock, as well as technical and engineering support – plus a range of delivery options.”
The ARK Group of companies does not target any OEM business or market and can provide the complete service solution, which covers all aspects of the ARK product range and the complete range of tooling required for setting the product in application on-site.
“Distributors are critical to our businesses as they are the total focus of our sales activities and service offering,” states Jessica. “They provide the connection to the customer that is using the product we offer and cover the geographical requirements of the territories we sell into. Importantly, distributors provide us with market intelligence regarding the required level of service demanded by the current market place. Our role is to enhance the supply chain as product specialists, by providing crucial technical, engineering and application knowledge of our complete range of ARK branded products.”
A key challenge within the fastener industry has been to get value back into commodity items. “Over the last ten years a lot of fastener product ranges have become commodity price driven and offered at very low pricing levels. The globalisation of the standard fastener product resulted in direct revenue reductions that were damaging the supply chain,” explains Jessica. “However, the recent price increase movements – due to raw material increases and currency exchange rate challenges – has helped the supply chain improve its offering. The distributor supply chain has also become very customer focused with a number of suppliers offering different services and supply solutions to maintain a competitive advantage. The development of niche suppliers, such as the ARK Group of companies, are taking product and service offerings up to new levels of support and are helping the supply chain invest in new technology to deliver new levels of efficiencies, demanded by the market place.”
Another important factor in the market today is to create market awareness. “We believe it is not all just about ‘having stock’, it is ensuring the market place has access to the latest news and product updates, which have become the new drivers of growth in company sales,” states Jessica. “Getting messages into the market, but more importantly, getting them read, is the most critical requirement. We take the view that it is crucial to promote the value in engineered products; it is about educating the market place on the technical, engineering and application aspects of our products; the days of just ‘forwarding enquiries using part numbers as a reference point’ will damage the value within the supply chain. This reduces the opportunities for distributors to achieve strong gross margins that are available to be made by understanding products. Many businesses are underselling and underestimating the value in the products they are selling – chasing rock bottom pricing that often goes hand in hand with unreliable sources of stock, with little or no knowledge of the product offering or added value services.”
The development of export sales within Europe, and establishing a European wide distribution network for ARK branded products, have been highlighted as focal points for the future for the ARK Group of companies. “Seeking distributor customers that supply the industrial market sector is a priority for us; together we have the opportunity to develop the industrial market sector,” concludes Jessica. “The mature market sector leaders have moved away from this valuable area, on the basis it is multi transactional; may involve small order quantities; and is a challenge for automated warehousing investments. Distributors have a real opportunity to achieve strong gross margins, which shouldn’t be missed, and we are interested in communicating and building strong relationships with people within the business who value our complete support package and do not just seek to source the cheapest global pricing structure.”
Will joined Fastener + Fixing Magazine in 2007 and over the last 15 years has experienced every facet of the fastener sector - interviewing key figures within the industry and visiting leading companies and exhibitions around the globe.
Will manages the content strategy across all platforms and is the guardian for the high editorial standards that the Magazine is renowned.
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