Sertec Group BFM 84

SERTEC GROUP

ENTERING EUROPE

SERTEC GROUP

WE LEARN HOW THE SERTEC GROUP OPERATES AS A TECHNOLOGY-LED COMPANY, AND HOW IT IS REPOSITIONING ITSELF TO GROW IN THE EUROPEAN MARKET.

ENTERING EUROPE PROJECT MANAGED BY: DAVID GARNER

The Sertec Group specialises in supplying body-in-white components such as aluminium and steel body part components to the automotive industry, and this narrow focus on the automotive sector has made them a leader in the industry.

A

t Sertec Group we’re 100% in the automotive industry,” says Ben Higgins, the Senior Vice President of Operations.

Manufacturing-wise the Group is currently positioned in the UK and mainland Europe with a technical centre in China. Sertec’s current size and scale, not counting the figures from last year when they were hit by the pandemic, place it at roughly £200 million in turnover across its manufacturing sites in Europe and the UK, where it employs 1,200 people.

“I joined the company in 2006 when we were a £30-millionpound turnover outfit across two sites,” Higgins recalls. “We’re now at £200 million across our global footprint, so the growth we’ve seen in the last 14-to-15 years has been tremendous.”

But Higgins insists this growth has not come at the cost of the company’s identity.

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“We are still privately owned, and we’re a family business, owned by the Mosedale family until 2016, with the founder’s children carrying the company on until a management buyout,” Higgins says. “We’re in a transitional phase with investors on board and we’re trying to be more of a corporation with the perceived professionalism in the way that works, but we’ve kept the family values and feel of the company.

The testimonials of people who join us show that working for Sertec is not like any other place.”

While the Sertec Group is well-established, it has also been undergoing something of a transformation. In the technology space, the company is still a lightweight vehicle specialist with a particular focus on the production and assembly of aluminium components. It’s a skill-set that has equipped them well for exciting new markets.

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Dave Steggles, Sertec’s Vice President of Engineering and Product Development.

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New PROFIL® Website

profil-global.com

We’re excited to announce the launch of the new PROFIL® website. In addition to its highly intuitive and modern site design, site visitors can experience new features like an interactive product search, interactive application overview, news section, and cost calculator.

Check out the new site here:

www.profil-global.com

PROFIL

SERTEC GROUP

PROFIL® is a proud supplier of mechanically attached fasteners into the Sertec Group. The partnership between both companies started with the launch of the Land Rover T5 Discovery in 2002. Since then, we have supported Sertec with innovative in die installation solutions on hundreds of die sets for transfer and progression processes on many models, providing the most cost effective solutions to Sertec and the OEMs . Since the outset of this successful partnership, the Sertec Group has installed over 350 million PROFIL fasteners into customer pressings. As both companies move rapidly to provide technical solutions for the EV market, this partnership will continue to provide the cutting-edge technologies needed to support these applications.

PROFIL® (a PennEngineering ® company) is the world’s premier global manufacturer of mechanically attached fasteners (MAF), an alternative to traditional weld fasteners, for the automotive industry. For over 50 years, PROFIL® has partnered with the world’s leading automotive OEMs to develop and engineer high integrity, cost-effective joining solutions for a wide range of demanding vehicle applications. PROFIL sells over 1.8 billion fasteners annually.

PROFIL® Mechanically Attached Fasteners (MAF) provide clean, cost-effective and high performing fastening solutions for virtually any automotive structural application, including BIW structures such as the upper body, under body, closures, EV battery trays and vehicle frames and chassis.

PROFIL® offers a broad range of MAF products and fully integrated, in-die or offline installation and feed systems, supporting customers from product design, tool and process development through serial production and after-sales technical support. Because the fasteners are joined to the application mechanically, they can be installed in the in-die process, which eliminates the need for secondary operations and reduces operating costs, including reduction or elimination of WIP, packaging, shop floor space, fork lift truck movements, power consumption and labour costs.

PROFIL® is the environmentally green choice for fasteners.

For further details of the complete product range, installation equipment and services PROFIL® offer as closed loop solution for fastener solutions please visit our new website.

WWW.PROFIL-GLOBAL.COM

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Dave Steggles, the Vice President of Engineering and Product Development says “Our lightweight expertise is secondto-none and that’s something we need to sell and market. We’re entering the electric vehicle space and have been successful with some awards in the UK for battery components as well as the casings that sit around the batteries,” “We’re looking at all possible avenues to add value for our customers. The family values, the company culture, are key but our technology offering and know-how are what we offer to new customers.”

Indeed, electric vehicles are set to become a key part of Sertec’s offering going forward.

“The electric vehicle space is the anchor. We’re making sure we’re not ignoring our core business, body-and-white, which is the cornerstone of the business today, but we see a lot of potential here,” Steggles explains.

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“In particular, we are looking to support both existing and new customers in the UK and Europe as lightweighting of body structures becomes critical in future Vehicle structures. Over recent years the Group have focused via our Research and Development teams, on the products and processes aligned to the emerging requirements for EV components needed in battery production.

“At the forefront of this approach, is our investment in a fully equipped Testing Lab, established in 2020. The testing lab has been invaluable in developing the Group’s abilities in designing and testing Busbars used in Modular Battery production. This has developed further with the installation of a fully equipped Low Volume laser production cell.

“This is currently being used to prove design concepts of assemblies requiring welding of dissimilar Busbar materials and it has proven to be pivotal in the Group’s nomination for the UK’s first mass-production Busbar assembly line, scheduled to go into full production Q3 2021.

With a well-established R&D Team, testing and production development facility, the Group is well placed and focused on supporting all our valued existing and new customers to meet the new technologic challenges of the future.“

Ben Higgins, Sertec’s Senior Vice President of Operations.

INVESTMENT IN STAFF

As well as positioning themselves to serve the growing electric vehicle market, Higgins is also keen to tell us about the ways Sertec is preparing to build a larger footprint in mainland Europe, including bringing new leadership into the organisation.

“We’ve got a new MD for our Hungarian facility, a European sales director who’s remotely located at the moment,” Higgins

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“OUR LIGHTWEIGHT EXPERTISE IS SECOND-TO-NONE AND THAT’S SOMETHING WE NEED TO SELL AND MARKET.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

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says. “We’re going to look at a technical centre in Germany similar to the one we have in China, and then a small plant in the north which we’re currently recruiting a new MD for. We’re repositioning our German plant as an electric vehicle plant using the known-how we’ve built up in the UK.” Leadership has been a watchword for Sertec during this repositioning, and the people they’re bringing in have exciting new ideas to bring to the table.

As Higgins points out, “Our new Managing Director in Hungary is really starting to come up with forward-thinking ideas and challenging the Board in the UK, which is what you expect from a really good general manager MD.” This ability to see deficits in their own knowledge base and bring people in who possess

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Based in the UK, Shiftec Limited has extensive capabilities to meet the individual needs of our customers including: • Cast, forged, pressed & machined parts.

• State of the art laser cutting facilities.

• Carbon composite and fibre glass design and production.

• End-to-end service design and engineering solutions for customers who have concepts and ideas that they want to create.

• Prototyping and full production for those customers who want a swift and effective manufacturing capability.

For more details about Shiftec please contact us at: Email: sales@shiftec.com | Tel: +44 (0)7551 123083 (Paul Jones)

GREAT BRITISH ENGINEERING

www.shiftec.com

SERTEC GROUP

SHIFTEC (WILLENHALL) LTD Shiftec Limited is a precision design and engineering business, based in the Midlands, that has been producing high quality vehicle operator interface controls and braking systems for use in automotive, off-highway and commercial vehicles for more than 60 years. With extensive capabilities in cast, forged, pressed, machined, and laser cutting across a significant range of standard parts, Shiftec is able to offer a range of solutions to meet each individual customer’s demands.

the knowledge and ideas they need has been a real driver in Sertec’s repositioning, and a similar story is visible in the electric vehicle space.

The team at Shiftec has been working with Sertec for almost a decade as a Tier 2 supplier providing metal presswork and pressed assemblies predominantly for their automotive clients.

This partnership has developed over time to suit both businesses in terms of volume and capability, allowing Sertec, as a Tier 1 supplier, to best service their markets in a timely and competitive way.

“We have a great relationship with the team at Sertec”, says Chris Baugh, Managing Director of Shiftec (Willenhall) Ltd. “They are a very important client for us and, they know and appreciate the extra mile that we go to make sure that their customers’ production lines aren’t compromised”.

“Over the years, we have been able to develop our business to suit the requirements of our clients, including Sertec, and have extended our capabilities to include additional state of the art laser cutting facilities as well as carbon composite and fibre glass which has seen significant growth over the past year”.

Chris and the team at Willenhall provide an end-to-end service able to design and engineer solutions for customers who have concepts and ideas that they want to create, through to prototyping and full production for those customers who want a swift and effective manufacturing capability.

Chris Baugh, MD, Shiftec.

For more details about Shiftec please contact us at sales@shiftec.com or call Paul Jones on +44 (0)7551 123083 www.shiftec.com

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“A couple of years ago now we recognised from an engineering point of view that entering the electric vehicle market would be a challenge for us, although there was a lot of crossovers. There were an extra expectation and challenge on the engineering side of things, it was expertise we didn’t have in abundance,” Higgins recalls.

“So at that time we went out and brought some big hitters in, toplevel engineering specialists.

We appointed someone to the board and brought in program and engineering managers at a different level to what we had, and we’ve integrated them into our culture.”

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As well as bringing in leading experts in the field, Sertec is also nurturing new talent.

“On the other end of the scale to that we have an extensive apprenticeship scheme, with 30 active apprentices across different areas, including maintenance, engineering, and business,” says Higgins. “We have a big investment in those guys and they graduate each year out into the business. We also have a graduate scheme we started last year. It was really about identifying the key elements we need to fill and go out and really make the customer believe we could deliver what we’re promising.”

This is essential, as the scrutiny Sertec’s engineering capability will come under in the electric vehicle sector is intense. As Higgins says, “You’ve got to have the people

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“OUR NEW MANAGING DIRECTOR IN HUNGARY IS REALLY STARTING TO COME UP WITH FORWARD-THINKING IDEAS & CHALLENGING THE BOARD IN THE UK, WHICH IS WHAT YOU EXPECT FROM A REALLY GOOD GENERAL MANAGER MD.” there and customers have to believe they are experts.”

Between the Sertec Group’s repositioning in Europe, and their work to enter the electric vehicle sector while still serving all their old customers, the future is one with great growth potential.

“The ambition over a fiveyear road map is to build up to a £50 million level, which was our original target three or four years ago before Brexit, and Covid and their consequences happened,” Higgins says. “We expect to see a recovery and the European and electric vehicle markets will be key to that.”

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WWW.SERTEC.CO.UK