Ten years is a long time in business but it can go past in the blink of an eye. In 2005 Armac Brassworks, a long-established manufacturer of traditional antique reproduction furniture fittings, made two significant decisions to safeguard its future.
Firstly, the company sold its Staniforth Street site in the centre of Birmingham, its home since 1929, and moved to a purpose-built manufacturing and distribution building in Duddeston - a few hundred metres away.
Secondly, the company made the acquisition of its top customer, Martin & Company, from just down the road in Hockley.
After a short period of bedding into the new home, and getting to know our new colleagues, we embarked on a major re-brand of the business at just about the same time as the longest recession in modern times hit home!
In business, timing is everything and, in truth, had the acquisition happened six months later, or the recession started six months earlier Armac’s re-brand plans would almost certainly have been put on hold and may well have ‘bunkered down’ to try and ride out the storm.
But it didn’t and the brand new Armac Martin met the storm head on.
The company had a new name, a new logo, new stationery, and new signage on the building and vans. We had a new catalogue, new brochures and most importantly we had new products. We did exhibitions in Birmingham, London, and New York.
Then it created a range of branded showboards that the sales team worked diligently to get seen and hung in showrooms up and down the country – and overseas as well.
It invested, heavily, on new modern machinery, adding its own plating plant and 3D printing for new product development – the company also invested in people. It sought grants for training and took on graduates and apprentices to ensure it would have the requisite skills, in house, for years to come.
It is said that a business that survives a recession is almost unrecognisable from the business that entered it. There’ll be no argument from Armac Martin on that one
