"When we drew up the business plan for AMS,” explains Steve Foster, “our primary goal was to build the company into the UK’s premier service provider. Our aim was to offer support services across a broad range of industries. As we head towards 2014 we have already established an enviable track record in markets as diverse as construction, education, defence, manufacturing and the prison service.
“For Steve and I, it’s all about investing in the future. To ensure the success of this venture and to underline our long-term commitment, we have commissioned a new purpose-built facility in Leicestershire. These state-of-the-art premises at Skeffington Mill will house our head office, showroom and training operations on one site. The year ahead is going to be tremendously exciting for our team and we are eagerly looking forward to the challenge of growing the AMS brand in the UK and Ireland. In these challenging economic times, businesses need to know that if their machinery lets them down, we won’t. We will get them up and running quickly and efficiently,” claims Mr Foster.
Training – the key to success
Three years ago, AMS set up a training school with its official partner, Didac. Founded in 1997, Didac is a training provider that has established a reputation for delivering quality training second-to-none. The company is an approved Provider for Apprenticeships and is at the pinnacle of training provision within the furniture, wood and merchanting sectors. Initially providing services to CNC machine users, Didac has expanded to offer a wide range of training and consultancy services.
The partnership between AMS and Didac is going from strength to strength. “It is a real pleasure working with AMS,” says Jon Gibson, Didac MD. “They are true professionals; they do what they say they’ll do and you always know you will get the best service possible from the AMS team.”
The new facility due to open in November this year will give the Didac/AMS partnership the flexibility to offer a full range of training from the Leicestershire facility. The intention is to have a full range of machines – 14 in total – fully operational and available for training and demonstrations.
With a current staff of 18, AMS plans to add to this team with at least two new apprentices in the coming months. These apprentices will be trained in conjunction with Leicester College. The company sees this type of investment as absolutely vital to its future growth.
A service company first and foremost
Since 2007 AMS has set a course to become the UK’s service provider of choice when it comes to the maintenance of woodworking machinery. Recently, however, it has added machinery sales to its portfolio. Steve McGloin explains the reasoning behind this bold move:
“Our growth strategy is to support our core service ‘foundation’ with a growing machine sales operation. Last year has seen us launch not only a range of reliable yet competitively-priced machinery under the famous Bursgreen brand, but also, in the solid wood machine market, the Kentwood range of moulders, planers, grinders, rip saws, software and automation solutions which we announced at W12 in October.
“To us, however, what is absolutely vital is that we are and will always be a service company that sells machinery, not a sales company that carries out service. It is this difference that sets us apart and enables us to provide the very best service possible,” concludes Mr McGloin.
Fast response and preventative maintenance
To maintain AMS’ position at the top of the service tree, the company offers a number of service options including a 24/48hr emergency package, parts and labour deals, and preventative maintenance contracts to minimise the likelihood of machine downtime.
Tel: 0844 844 9949
Email: [email protected]
AMS is also the UK agent for Kentwood machines
