A strong conviction that products must be both innovative and designed to meet customer needs, is central to the Severnside operation and a major reason why the company continues to lead the market.
Textile technologists and equipment manufacturers perform vital roles in achieving design breakthroughs by developing new and modified textiles for laundry machinery. However, the seeds for these products are planted elsewhere. They frequently stem from the people who are “out there” in daily contact with the industry. It is the end-user and the manufacturer’s technical staff who provide the ideas which stimulate the research and development.
Teamwork
Severnside Fabrics makes customer consultation a priority, says managing director, Mr David Neary and he ensures it happens throughout the UK by maintaining a large team of field sales technicians who work closely with manufacturers, laundry managers and production engineers.
The company also pursues the same policy internationally. In 36 countries world-wide, the same end-user knowledge is gathered by Severnside’s distributors who are dealing with manufacturers on a global scale. These distributors, adopting the Severnside approach, give the company a source of knowledge that allows it to be ahead of the competition in product development, production and service.
The laundry industry, in common with many others, is changing. Only by having industry-dedicated, experienced technical people in the field, monitoring these changes and plotting the trends, can the company keep abreast of customers’ requirements and remain at the leading edge of the industry.
At Severnside the strength of its field team is the key to competitiveness. It has long been the company’s policy to provide a total service and to research, develop, manufacture, supply and fit its products. Experienced, knowledgeable representatives advise on methods of clothing laundry machinery and have the ability to diagnose problems and the confidence to suggest solutions. Complementing them, an experienced service team ensures clothing is correctly fitted. Together, the Severnside team provides products that give optimum performance.
The company knows that its laundry machinery clothing is correctly recommended and properly fitted by people with many years of hands-on experience.
Wide expertise
“We don’t consider our external people as sales people in the usual sense,” says Mr Neary. “They are unique in our specific field, being technically-sound advisors to and students of the industry. The knowledge they gather and use daily goes far beyond that of machinery clothing expertise and extends throughout the laundry process from wash-house to finishing equipment.” Constantly drawing on their combined experiences and that of other industry people to solve problems is the main strength of the company. This coupled with over 105 years of manufacturing experience, making products solely for the laundry industry, gives the company its leading edge. It is Severnside’s belief in its people that is at the core of its business ethic and is its strongest asset.
Severnside has more than a century of laundry experience and is part of the Andrew Industries Group which has been producing laundry machinery textiles since 1894. It is the largest manufacturer of textiles for the laundry industry. In recent years, the group has made several acquisitions both in the UK and internationally including the UK’s F Goodman & Sons (1996), the laundry textile Divisions of Dollfus & Noack SA France (1996) and Nordifa Gruppen, Sweden (1999). Nordifa has several laundry textile divisions: Nordifa Halmstad,Sweden; Nordifa Liege, Belgium; and TTL Lörrach Germany.
With these acquisitions consolidated, Andrew Industries now centres its manufacturing operations in Lancashire, UK.
Fabrication, distribution, sales and service operations are carried out at Severnside Fabrics (UK) Andrew Medical, Ireland, and European Laundry Products, France.
The Group also has an operation in South Carolina to handle distribution manufacturing and sales for the American market and companies in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
From this development it can be seen that the group has a wealth of technical know-how to expand the range which now includes Nordifa Kenlex Clothing, TTL Tulona Monoturn paddings, and Dollfus & Noack “Dolnex” belts and Introtex bands.
Severnside Fabrics with its philosophy of “people technology” offers a comprehensive supply-and-fit service for ironer clothing, feeder bandings and folder bandings. This service is on offer seven days a week, 24 hours a day, anywhere in the UK.
Goodwill
Being part of a world-wide network gives the company access to global information and resources but it is his unique team of ‘ambassadors’ in the UK that managing director David Neary speaks of with much pride. “They have generated a great deal of goodwill in the laundry industry” he says. “They are the people who meet the customers and give them impartial advice without obligation. It is a work ethic and a philosophy that the company is keen to pursue. We intend to stay out in front in both innovation and customer service and the manner in which the team performs is a direct reflection of that aim.”
