Qimtek's 15th Year Anniversary

2019 marks a significant milestone for sourcing specialists Qimtek, as the business celebrates its 15th birthday.
Qimtek cake
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15 yers banner

15 years of manufacturing connections

Over the past decade and a half, Qimtek has helped thousands of manufacturing companies to source subcontract suppliers and fill spare capacity. Offering both a professional sourcing service for buyers and an enquiry-led membership for suppliers, Qimtek’s focus is on the establishment of business relationships that are mutually beneficial for both parties. As such, its services have been utilised by a wide scope of businesses, ranging from small subcontract shops through to major OEMs.

Inspired Beginnings: 

Qimtek was founded in 2004 by Karl and Hans Wigart. Inspired by their grandfather, Bengt Wigart, who in 1938 started a construction information company in their native Sweden, Karl and Hans were keen to bring their own solution to the UK manufacturing market. Their respective careers in construction information had traversed a number of continents including Europe, North America and Australia, giving both founders the expertise they needed to carry their vision forward.

 

New business system

New Website: 

As Qimtek offers a predominantly online service, a major turning point in the company’s history came with the launch of the new website in November 2015. It was important for Qimtek to provide buyers and suppliers with the best possible new business platform; although the original site had served its users well, it was necessary for a replacement to be built to cope with the modern challenges surrounding search engine optimisation. A new website allowed Qimtek to continue to actively promote its subcontract members, while also introducing a range of new features to facilitate better communication - not just between buyers and suppliers, but also the industry at large. Qimtek owner Karl Wigart explains: “As internet technology is moving so quickly and customers are expecting a better experience, it was vital for Qimtek to modernise its platform and have a much more flexible system. “It was decided to use Drupal and with our partner Five Mile Media, a complete new website structure was built to take Qimtek into the future.” 

 

Subcon Logo partner
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Southern Logo exhibition

Strategic Show Partnerships :

In addition to 2015’s new website, Qimtek has also implemented a number of other strategies to ensure continual publicity for its subcontract engineering members. 2014 saw Qimtek exhibit at the Subcon show, before progressing to show partner in 2016. This partnership gave Qimtek members a chance to exhibit within a dedicated member ‘village’, while also enjoying preferential rates and the opportunity to network with active buyers at an invite-only drinks reception. The success of Subcon 2016 led to continuation of the partnership into 2017. This strategy proved so successful for participating suppliers that Qimtek decided to partner with several other industry events, including Advanced Engineering in 2018. The introduction of Advanced Engineering’s UK Contract Manufacturing Zone aligned with Qimtek’s focus on the national subcontract industry - as a result, Qimtek will once again be promoting the use of UK engineering supply chains at 2019’s event. “Qimtek is always actively looking for ways to promote its members to the UK manufacturing industry,” Dean Munkley, Sales & Marketing Manager, states. “One of the ways we do this is to attend large shows and exhibitions. “We’ve decided to partner with Advanced Engineering for the second year running, due to the continuation of the UK Contract Manufacturing Zone. This is the ideal place for our members to be seen and we are looking forward to passing on the benefit of targeted introductions that could result in large amounts of new business.”

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Engineering Capacity Logo

Engineering Capacity

It’s not just industry events that Qimtek has partnered with. The sourcing specialist also has a close relationship with well respected contract engineering publication Engineering Capacity. For the past two years, Qimtek has integrated the magazine within its own website, resulting in a comprehensive news source for Qimtek members and buyers, as well as the wider scope of the manufacturing industry. ”We are pleased to have a working partnership with Qimtek for our online presence,’ said publisher Andy Sandford. ‘With Engineering Capacity’s news and insights combined with the relationships that Qimtek facilitates, it adds up to a powerful combination.”

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The Key to Success:

Qimtek largely attributes its success to excellent staff retention, with many members of staff having been with the company for several years or longer. As Qimtek caters for all manner of subcontract processes - from machining, sheet metal and fabrication, through to casting, moulding and additive manufacturing - it is essential that team members are able to read engineering drawings and understand what each enquiry entails. Qimtek invests in its staff by providing extensive training - some of which has been provided by manufacturing body Make UK (formerly EEF) - on a wide range of engineering processes and requirements. “We know it can take up to two years to train our staff to fully understand our business, meaning it is crucial to retain our staff,” Karl Wigart confirms. “We have a very inclusive company culture where anyone can and will have input on how we run the business. “I am also a great believer in giving staff full control of their areas of expertise and trust that they will come for help when they need it. We have also introduced flexible working hours so that staff can control their own time, giving them freedom to get on with their private life.” 

 

Looking to the Future:

Currently, Qimtek runs with up to 300 subcontract engineering members spanning a wide range of engineering processes and sources for thousands of manufacturing buyers each year. While growth may be a key driver of many companies, Qimtek’s focus is not on doubling these figures, but rather to maintain their present membership level and improve upon the quality of their service. Due to the breadth of subcontract services offered by their members, it is important to Qimtek that each subcontract supplier is given access to new business opportunities that match their capabilities; if membership numbers were to grow significantly, this would be much more difficult to manage. “Going forward, Qimtek will look much closer at matching the requirements of the buyer and supplier,” says Karl Wigart. “We have to make sure that both parties are successful in using our service. “The better we become at that - and it is usually all about communication - the happier our customers are. This might mean we will have to restrict the number of suppliers we have as members and also be more selective of the types of jobs we take from buyers.”