Electronics Sourcing invited CamdenBoss’ MD, Katy Davies, to walk readers through the company’s current activities and future plans.
Q) How has the last 12 months been for CamdenBoss?
It has been a rollercoaster for everyone. The business faced a host of challenges including keeping people safe in the workplace, managing the job retention scheme, interrupted supply chains and constantly analysing changes in customer demand.
Pandemic aside, we have continued with the original 100-day plan, with a full strategy review and organisational redesign to deliver our ambitious strategy.
We are lucky to have navigated the year without redundancies and no Covid in the workplace, while recruiting a fantastic team of talented leaders across the business. It’s the start of an exciting time for CamdenBoss.
Q) What market changes have you witnessed during this period?
We see a strong push towards reshoring production to the UK and have already repatriated the bulk of our mould tools to the UK. This is a trend we only see growing.
Regarding target markets, we remain industry agnostic with our products serving sectors from medical to EV charging. This has been a real strength as we have seen specific sectors thrive while others hibernate. More broadly we’re seeing a surge in IOT and IIOT products and are constantly in awe of the amazing technologies we house for customers.
Q) How do you see CamdenBoss advancing in coming years?
New product highlights include Easy Assembly and Hex Box enclosures. The company’s NPD pipeline is customer focussed to ensure buyers get features they both want and never even knew they wanted.
Our delivery team offers a wealth of expertise, particularly in lean methodologies and quality. This will allow CamdenBoss to improve the customer experience for buyers and deliver excellently.
Q) How are CamdenBoss’ new premises benefiting buyers?
The new premises are about four times the size of the existing footprint, so the key enabler is more space. The move allows us to optimise workflows and layouts to maximise efficiencies, while permitting us to add additional capabilities in our five-year plan.
As a workplace, the new building enhances our wellbeing strategy, with access to landscaped outdoor space and leafy views from inside.
Q) Is your plan to re-shore more products?
CamdenBoss started re-shoring mould tools back in 2018 and the current surge for UK manufacturing has validated that strategy. We constantly review our overseas tools and our strategy is to re-shore wherever it makes sense to do so.
Q) How are lead times?
Supply chain lead times are challenging through a combination of Chinese freight capacity, availability of raw materials and persistent border delays. We are mitigating as far as possible with key partners and have taken several strategic buying decisions to get in front. This will ease. It’s a matter of persistence, always striving to get the best outcomes for customers and making quick decisions to keep things moving.