REMATECNEWS 8-2012:REMATEC-1/2004
05-12-2012
10:10
Pagina 16
Building a new high-t Together with his son, Geoff, Peter Bain, a former automotive electrical remanufacturer, has created the Rand-Tek brand. Designed by US and Taiwanese engineers and manufactured in joint venture Chinese factories Rand-Tek is rapidly gaining ground in a specialized market. From being an apprentice auto electrician in a UK workshop to a top European graduate to running electrical rebuilding shops in the US and forming a high-tech joint venture with a Taiwanese partner in China is quite a progression. That, nevertheless, sums up Peter Bain’s career. In just eight years, Bain, a former Chairman of The Automotive Remanufacturers Association, APRA, and his son, Geoff, has succeeded in establishing Miami-based Rand Group Inc. as a force in the market for rectifiers, voltage regulators, diodes and plastics. Rand Group currently employs a workforce of 450 people, mainly in China, and sells its products to OEMs and the aftermarket across the globe. As Bains puts it: “When you combine the Taiwanese expertise in regulators and circuitry with our knowledge of rectifiers, diodes and our understanding of what quality the rebuilder demands, the entire industry will benefit from this joint venture.”
Progress
Peter Bain Starting out as an apprentice auto electrician in the UK, Peter Bain decided to seek broader horizons and moved to Vancouver in Canada to get used to the American type of systems. After five years, he started his own company remanufacturing starters and alternators and related work before moving to California to work for a large manufacturer of starters and alternators. After another few years, the urge to run his own business took over once again as he set up his own starter and alternator business. In 2004, he and a colleague formed the Rand Group Inc.
16 l ReMaTecNews
So far the combination has worked beyond expectations – and the signs are that the progress is set to continue. When the joint venture in China was set up four years ago, the number of employees amounted to 180. Today the figure has nearly trebled. Peter Bain, who served as Chairman of APRA in 2008 believes that the explanation, at least in part, lies in the control which Rand exercises across the entire chain. “In China there are perhaps 1000 different companies that make rectifiers,“ he explains. “To ensure the quality of our products, we decided that we must be fully in control ourselves. That’s why Rand, with our partners, now have four factories which build only our products. This is the only way in which we can be sure that our products meet our quality requirements.” Having proven the viability of Rand’s business concept, Peter and Geoff Bain now focus on the next steps in the company’s development. One is to further consolidate Rand-Tek as a brand name and the other is working closely with customers to assist them solving new challenges. As to branding, the intention is to create a higher profile in the market – which is not always straightforward. As Geoff Bains, explains, Rand-Tek is a ‘brand behind the