CNC ROUTERS Kitchen and Bedroom Doors within 24 hours: The Browns 2000 Challenge Delivering custom made cabinet doors and components for kitchens and bedrooms within 24 hours from receipt of an order is a massive challenge for any manufacturer. However, Browns 2000, based in Cramlington, Northumberland, has won this challenge with a revolutionary business model and with the SCM Group’s very latest technology. Owner and Managing Director, Peter Brown, puts anyone at ease as soon as you meet him. He is a man from the North East of England who can laugh and lives life for what it brings. Then, surprisingly, you realise Peter is a "Furniture Genius" who has invented his own way of doing business in this complicated and competitive World. Peter, with a recipe all of his own, proves that there is still much to invent. But how? We are going to tell you, but before, Peter made a trip to Rimini, Italy, home of the SCM Group's headquarters, a company he is now very fond of due to the amount of high tech machinery he has purchased from them over the last few years. At Browns 2000 (www.browns2000.co.uk), a modern and custom built factory covering 220,000 square feet, there are really few machines without one of the SCM Group's brand names on them. These include a top of the range SCM “L’Invincibile” Sliding Table Panel Saw, various CMS-Brembana Macchine Glass and Marble cutting machines, SCM “Superset” and “Topset” Planer Moulders, a Sergiani Press for curved doors and components, DMC
sanding equipment, and a Morbidelli “HPL” Routing and Edge Banding Cell. There are also sixteen SCM “Ergon” Twin-Table High Spec CNC Machining Centres integrated with Mahros handling equipment, more than any other company Worldwide, two Stefani Laser Edge Banding machines and a Stefani “Slim Line” Edging Line. Peter Brown visited Rimini with SCM UK's Area manager, Ian McCarthy, as he was considering new investments, including a new Morbidelli “Powerflex” Boring cell. Peter Brown is a major customer, whom SCM's specialists in Rimini were very pleased to meet, not only for the energy he radiates, but also because he offered a new way of doing business, or at least, a way that the SCM personnel did not know before. Starting from a significant economic figure, i.e. the woodworking and panel business in England is valued at approximately one hundred million Euros considering new equipment, a little less than fifty percent is built by Italian manufacturing companies. Peter Brown comments “My adventure began in 1983, in a garage, as it often happens. I was struck by wood, and how I could transform it into various products. It was a real passion. I involved my wife, and together we created the story of Browns 2000. In thirty years, many things have changed. Today we have approximately 20 million Euro revenues, employ eighty people, including our children, and we specialise in cabinet doors and components
for kitchens and bedrooms." "We do not just process wood and MDF, but, in order to provide a full and fast service to our wide range of customers, we have also learned how to process both marble and glass. We are more independent, we have acquired more expertise to manage the entire processes ourselves. This makes the difference with other companies. We provide complete high-quality solutions, using the best materials and technology currently available on the market. That’s our philosophy!" “Sales and manufacturing somehow coincide within our company” Peter Brown continues. “Customers who come to us don’t just see products, but also how we build them, what we do, and with which tools we utilise. Also, for this reason, we have invested hugely in machinery and equipment, in order to be sure we achieve the final result through flexibility, speed and productivity. If you choose one of our cabinet doors or kitchen sets, you don’t just buy a piece of panel, glass or marble, you buy us and what we are. You buy Browns 2000." "Those who know the peculiarities of the British market can easily understand the Browns 2000 phenomenon”, said Gabriele De Col, Managing Director of the SCM Group in the United Kingdom, who, together with Ian McCarthy, is the link between Browns and the Italian wood and panel technology suppliers. When Peter says “customers”, he means something like two thousand UK installers. Not a few hundred resellers of a big
From left to right: Stefani Laserline at Browns 2000, Some of the original SCM ERGON CNC machining centres at BROWNS 200, Edge Banding on Stefani at Browns.
6 Panel & Joinery Production JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
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