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Bad news about the economy is constantly being voiced in the media; you can therefore be forgiven for thinking that business is universally bleak with company directors having their heads in the sand waiting for better times to return!
What is rarely stated is the massive creation of jobs in the private sector, as many as 400,000 in the last year according to some statistics.
In the electronic technology sector, there is an exciting example of one company that has embraced this job creation and invested boldly for growth.
GPEG International Ltd is the UK’s largest display developer and, according to the Sunday Times Techtrack 100, the fastest growing hardware company in the UK. Headquartered in Woolwich, South East London, on the re-developed Royal Arsenal estate, GPEG is focussed on delivering electronic solutions that are brighter, clearer and easier to use.
GPEG’s international coverage is evidenced by its latest investment, the opening of their office in Milan Italy, complementing its existing success in Germany and Taiwan. With manufacturing taking place in its dedicated facilities in China and South Korea group turnover is already in excess of USD40M.
With a customer base in the consumer, gaming and professional markets GPEG is already exporting more than 50% of its output to mainland Europe.
Given this level of success in such a modest period of time you may think that in this period of austerity the company would be cautiously maintaining and consolidating its position; the Company’s CEO Nick How thinks differently.
Re-deploying resources and boosting technology
“Starting early in 2010 we could see that our rapid growth was slowing and that market conditions were beginning to make it much harder to expand our current operations. Our existing customer base was very robust but was nevertheless being cautious about new product introductions. GPEG had to find ways to exploit the situation in order to create new opportunities.
We found within our existing business that our engineering expertise could be put to work not only on our traditional customer programs but also on developing novel and exciting new products that would open up new markets for us.
To underpin these product developments we took a bold decision and hired additional engineers to add software expertise to our existing portfolio of skills. Additionally we recruited dedicated commercial management to bring these new products to market.
Penetration into these new markets has been achieved by investing heavily in exhibitions, marketing, test and approvals alongside the increased headcount. We are delighted that these actions have gained us national press coverage in the Sunday Times, Deloittes, Home Improvement magazines as well as the more traditional trade press.
Since this initiative started we have registered two patent applications and continue to grow our core touch and display technology to the benefit of our major customers as well as helping to consolidate our own position”.
Geographic Expansion
At its heart GPEG is a service orientated company that customers view as an extension to their own engineering teams. We design, develop and manufacture electronic solutions that are brighter, clearer and easier to use.
This process relies on the closest possible relationship between our clients and the development teams based in London, Southern China and Seoul, South Korea. “We have found that the nearer we are to the end client the more successful the relationship is, resulting in better control of the development programme”.
To facilitate this and to further expand our European business we began a hiring process earlier this year to recruit the people in the industry best to share in and drive our future growth. Adding to our existing success in Germany we have now opened our second European operation in Milan, Italy.
Alessio Nori, a seasoned electronics professional who takes on responsibility for our Italian operation, sees the same massive opportunity that we did in the UK in 2005. Alessio comments: “GPEG has a great opportunity to bring its novel approach into Italy. The design expertise and comprehensive skills that are a fundamental to GPEG’s fantastic growth are of huge interest and we already have some exciting programs that we are working on together”. GPEG expects to build up to 20% of its European business in Italy on the back of its investment over the coming 3~5years.
Closer to home GPEG still has its eyes open for the right person to help cover the north of England to enhance the support we can give to clients, whatever their industry. “Many industrial and innovative businesses are operating in the north of England and from London we can’t support them as well as we would like to” comments How, ”placing a quality commercially astute engineer at the heart of this area is our goal and we expect to have the right person in place at the end of the summer.”
For such a small firm GPEG is punching well above its weight and is contributing to the private sector job creation initiative.
Nick How sums up GPEG’s ambitions “We want to double the size of the business in the near term future – but that does not happen by chance alone. Opportunity does not just come to you, you have to seek it out and make your own luck. Our recent hard cash investments and belief in our business will create an environment where that can and will happen, creating an exciting future for our employees, customers and shareholders alike.”
Posted on 01/12/2011 in TFT Modules - High Specification .
