Transport Technologies Sector

Testimonials

The concentration of prime automotive manufacturers in the region are inevitably a major draw to their suppliers. Eighteen of the top suppliers have a presence in the West Midlands, including such names as Dana, Goodyear Dunlop United Kingdom, Denso and NSK. Altogether the region boasts some 590 businesses in the automotive sector.

Birmingham offers an unrivalled combination of motor industry expertise, availability of skilled labour, an optimum location for accessing the UK assembly plants plus infrastructure support including research associations and supplier networks.

"Birmingham is the optimum location for the automotive sector offering state of the art technology and innovation." Mike Beasley, former Managing Director, Jaguar Cars Ltd.

"Birmingham is the ideal location for the automotive industry. The City has a long history of meeting the exact needs of the industry in terms of offering highly skilled people, a central location and above all the ambition to succeed." Allan Amey, Chief Executive, LDV.

"TyreFort represents a major symbol of our investment and commitment to Birmingham and the West Midlands. Bringing all our resources and the vast expertise contained within the Goodyear and Dunlop retail organisations under one roof will allow us to work more closely, share experience and best practice and ensure that it's our customers who ultimately benefit from this cross-fertilisation. Customers are the life blood of the business and they will always remain our top priority." Marco Molinari, Former Chairman and Group Managing Director, UK Operations, Goodyear Dunlop United Kingdom.

"We believe our position at Great Park gives us an excellent opportunity to take advantage of the resources available in Birmingham including its workforce and transport structure." Geoff Payne, UK Finance and Administration Manager, Draexlmaier Automotive UK.

"Our extensive operation in the Midlands means that we can provide the fastest round the clock express delivery service in the UK. The central location and the superb transport links mean that we can provide customers with seamless integrated distribution for any kind of consignment to any destination." Nigel Barton, Operations Director, TNT UK.

Case Studies

Draexlmaier Automotive UK
Since moving to the UK, German car component maker Draexlmaier has poured millions of pounds of investment into Birmingham.

“We first came to the UK in 1996, when we brought in a small team to set up a project,” says Geoff Payne, UK finance and administration manager, Draexlmaier Automotive UK. “The company has great confidence in Birmingham and today we employ some 100 people. We have substantial orders from BMW for the Mini wiring harness, and some work for Land Rover, Jaguar and others.”

The key to success here is to perform to, and exceed, the customer’s expectations.

“Component manufacturers around the world are facing some tough challenges,” says Payne. “Today, no one can afford to make a product on spec, you only make what you have sold and your response times have to be excellent. A superb product delivered late is still no good. You have to be able to deliver the right product, at the right price, at the right time, and if you can do that, you’ll succeed."

“Our design team has been working on the interior for the new Jaguar XK8 for three years at the redevelopmental stage before full production in 2005. With integrated design platforms, suppliers and manufacturers can collaborate on the design, improving time to market and taking costs out of the process. This is the way forward for the sector."

“We believe our position at Great Park gives us an excellent opportunity to take advantage of the resources available in Birmingham including its workforce and transport structure.”

Goodyear Dunlop United Kingdom
“The UK tyre industry is in a period of consolidation, with all the major players having taken measures to stem manufacturing over-capacity,” said Marco Molinari, former chairman and group managing director of Goodyear and Dunlop ’s UK Operations.

“Both Goodyear and Dunlop have had to refocus their businesses with the objective of providing a best in class service to our customers. For example, we have made a significant investment in a state of the art new National Distribution Centre. This complex, TyreFort, is capable of housing more than one million tyres ready for delivery to UK vehicle manufacturers and tyre retailers."

"This investment is a signal of our commitment to Birmingham, a city that offers us the optimum location to serve our partners and build the flexible and focused business that is essential in today's demanding market."

Teleflex
Teleflex has operated out of Birmingham supplying control cable systems for motor manufacturers. General manager Malcolm Trueman says its location has been vital to its success. “In terms of the infrastructure, engineering base and skilled workforce experienced in working in the automotive sector, Birmingham has so much to offer.”

“Although things are particularly challenging in the automotive industry at present with manufacturers putting tremendous pressure on component suppliers, we have every confidence businesses with the right infrastructure who understand their strengths and their markets, will find plenty of opportunities out there."

"The key to success is to be able to offer a full service to your manufacturer clients and Birmingham firms are well placed to do just that. Being a “me too ”supplier, competing on price alone, will not win in today ’s market. At Teleflex we have invested substantially over the years in building up a high quality design team that can work with the manufacturer in collaborative design processes."

"Local automotive companies will always have to deal with the threat posed by low wage economies such as China, but manufacturers wanting to buy products from these countries recognise that they will have to put their own infrastructure in place to control that product."

“Birmingham automotive suppliers bring a great deal more to the table than competitors from those economies. We will never be able to compete on price alone, but have worked hard on added value. Vehicles are becoming more complex and require more engineering support. There is scope to develop added value if one has the resources and the design strengths to articulate these propositions,” added Trueman.

“One example of where Teleflex’s design skills have won it a world leadership position concerns electric windows. When these first emerged, they were all on a "arm and sector" basis, where a cog drove a steel arm that raised or lowered the window. This approach had drawbacks in safety terms, since a side impact collision could drive the steel arm back into the body of the car, posing a danger to the occupants. We designed a cable-based alternative that removed the need for the steel bar and Teleflex is now probably the world’s largest provider of electric window assemblies. One has to watch the trends, see what is coming and plan for it.”

Timet
The West Midlands aerospace industry is also gaining strength. Fighting back against the global downturn unleashed by September 11, the industry is looking for opportunities to boost business and present a united front.

One Birmingham based company holding its head high throughout the crisis is aerospace supplier Timet.

“We specialise in providing parts for jet engines and our site in Witton, Birmingham, houses a world-recognised research and development laboratory. The city is home to a vibrant aerospace cluster and we have all the relevant skills and expertise available on our doorstep.” David Roberts, European finance director, Timet UK.

Locate in Birmingham advises: “Government funding is available through Advantage West Midlands, which is offering a £2 million aid package branded 'Lift Off' to its region over the next three years. This forms part of a £3.8 million investment across the region supported by the DTI and the East Midlands Development Agency.”

Ivan Buckley, AWM’s cluster manager responsible for aerospace, says: “Learning from our support to automotive suppliers, we have put together a comprehensive support package for the aerospace industry. It will assist companies and their supply chains to modernise and diversify."

TNT Express Services
TNT - taking advantage of the Birmingham location.

In 2004 TNT Express Services opened a multi-million pound flagship depot in Birmingham taking advantage of Birmingham's location at the heart of the UK's motoring network.

The new facility is the biggest in the company's nationwide network of more than 50 depots.

Handling tens of thousands of parcels and packages each week, the state-of-the-art depot at Network Park, Saltley, provides a vital strategic link for the delivery and collection of business-to-business consignments for industry and commerce in Birmingham, the West Midlands and UK wide.

TNT located their depot in Birmingham because of the city's proximity to the motorway axis, which means that most areas of the country are within a two hour drive.

Employing 300 people, this depot represents the largest ever investment in a single site by TNT Express Services in the UK.

The increasingly sophisticated nature of systems used by TNT at their new world-class facility gives the lie to the logistics sector not providing skilled, hi-tech jobs.

TNT now have a 99,000 sq ft site which boasts the very latest in leading-edge technology. This includes hi-tech hub-style sortation systems and the use of sophisticated electronic tracking software provided by the German IT giant SAP.

The logistics industry now employs the latest hi-tech systems which ensures speed and reliability of service in an increasingly customer-driven environment.

Birmingham has proved itself to be a world-class logistics location with the opening of this modern facility.

Click here to view TNT's press release.

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