One of the UK’s leading suppliers of advanced metals and materials is looking to build on strong double-digit international growth by addressing a key industry pain point. Goodfellow, which has recorded significant increases in revenue in Europe and North America, is tackling the ‘Scaling up Challenge’ of bringing new materials into long-term production.
CEO Simon Kenney believes small variations really matter when you’re pushing the boundaries of innovation and has revealed his company is increasingly working with global customers during the initial R&D phase and onwards to ensure continuity of production once the technology moves out of the lab and into real-world reality.
Having supplied small quantities of highly specialised advanced materials globally for many years, Goodfellow continues to expand this offer, whilst also providing their customers with free technical support and continuity of supply and specification to help them scale up.
He has provided live examples from the semiconductor sector and an advanced ‘medical’ alloy, both of which have overcome challenges around long-term performance, material parameters and, increasingly, geopolitical tensions.
If we can work together to connect discovery to production properly, then scaling stops being the constraint – it becomes the advantage. This is really giving us a competitive ‘USP’, and this is leading to double-digit growth for us in what has been a hugely turbulent marketplace.
Simon Kenney, CEO, Goodfellow
“Our business plays a critical role in innovation-led industries, where quality, precision, and reliability are critical,” explained Simon.
“Increasingly, we are being involved in the earlier development of new technologies, especially when new grades of material or advanced alloys are brought into the equation.
“We are continually posed with the real-world problem of moving from small-batch development work in the lab to long-term operational performance in the field and that’s what we’ll be raising with existing and new clients.”
He continued: “If we can work together to connect discovery to production properly, then scaling stops being the constraint – it becomes the advantage. This is really giving us a competitive ‘USP’, and this is leading to double-digit growth for us in what has been a hugely turbulent marketplace.”
Goodfellow, which supplies more than 170,000 different products, is entering the fifth year of its ambitious growth journey with the focus on a mix of strategic acquisitions and continued investment in its core capabilities.
This has seen the installation of new equipment and operational processes to enhance efficiency, quality, and responsiveness across its global operations, improving precision handling capabilities and streamlining order fulfilment to deliver faster lead times and world class quality.
Simon went on to add: “There have been several new product launches in the last twelve months, with more than 1200 new SKUs added to our high-purity foil range (across foil sheets, light-tight foils, discs and coils) and nine new stainless steel grades serving applications where specific corrosion resistance, mechanical, or thermal properties are required.
“They have been joined by 172 new SKUs in MACOR machinable glass ceramics and four new grades of titanium alloys – used extensively in aerospace structures, biomedical implants, chemical processing equipment and marine engineering.”
He concluded: “We’re not stopping there and will shortly be adding 99.99% (4N) platinum crucibles to our range for high temperature laboratory and analytical applications and, excitingly, our own-brand polyimide film for flex PCB applications. The latter will target the rapidly expanding flexible and wearable electronics sector.”
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