Hardware
Leveraging UK expertise and Chinese manufacturing excellence to deliver industry-leading innovation
From the earliest days of UAP Ltd , 25 years ago , the company ’ s business model has always been to engage with customers in the UK , design innovative products around their requirements and work collaboratively with manufacturers in Asia to deliver the best possible quality at the most competitive price .
Overseas manufacturing is nothing unusual , but UAP ’ s commitment is that every item it sells will provide exceptional value , not just an attractive price . To keep that promise , the company does things a little differently . And , as UAP has grown – to a £ 22 million business with more than 6000 products in its range and a team of 180 people – the company ’ s product development expertise , quality management systems and talented staff , have all played a critical role in allowing it to scale up while continuing to raise the bar for the locks and ironmongery sector .
ON THE GROUND EXPERTISE IN CHINA
In the early days , most of UAP ’ s manufacturing partners were in India but , over the past 25 years , the company has worked in partnership with factories in China , which adhere to UAP ’ s exacting quality and compliance standards , along with the company ’ s focus on staff wellbeing and fairness . To ensure the supply chain delivers against all these criteria , not only does UAP ’ s leadership team make regular visits to the Far East , which will resume now that travel restrictions have been eased , but the company also has a Far East supply chain manager , Pan Huiyi , who is Chinese and based in China .
Pan has wide-ranging business experience in China and has worked for UAP for the past 12 years , after originally meeting UAP CEO , David Jennings , when she was employed by her previous company . After working for UAP on a freelance basis to help the company source products and
John McLoughlin
Pan Huiyi
supply chain partners , she took on a full time role . And now the company is opening an office and establishing as a trading company in China to implement further supply chain efficiencies and enable it to grow the Chinese team . Indeed , two additional members of staff have recently been appointed in China : purchaser , Dean Lu Guohua and administrator , Dandan Li Xudan .
Pan explains : “ Chinese manufacturers are used to doing business with companies from all over the world , so it ’ s not unusual for them to work to strict quality and compliance standards and undergo regular visits and audits from their customers . Even with systems and protocols in place , however , it can be hard to manage manufacturing at arm ’ s length or negotiate with partners when there are language and cultural differences .
“ My presence on the ground in China and my knowledge as an experienced Chinese business person means that I can ensure UAP has much tighter control of pricing , quality , product development lead times and production schedules , enabling much greater transparency and reliability for UK customers .”
Pan ’ s day-to-day remit for UAP is diverse and plays an important role in ensuring that UK stock levels are maintained at optimum levels to ensure supply chain reliability for UAP ’ s UK customers and wholesaler networks .
“ I am in constant communication with our Chinese manufacturing partners ,” Pan continues , “ making sure that their production schedules are aligned to UAP ’ s requirements and that the cost of manufacturing remains within the pricing strategy for each product .
“ In China , there is a complex delivery chain that usually involves traders as intermediaries between the commissioning brand and the manufacturer . Our strategy is to manage our relationships with the factories direct , and we can only do that if we have a Chinese office .
“ That direct contact is a big advantage for us , with a more formal UAP presence in China , we ’ re not only able to communicate with our factories direct , but we can also nurture those relationships to ensure we have loyal and committed manufacturing partners .”
EXPERTISE IN THE UK
In addition to working with colleagues and supply chain partners in China , Pan works collaboratively with UAP colleagues in the UK to ensure a joined up , multi-disciplinary approach across the product concept , design , manufacturing , sales and
52 DECEMBER 2021 CLEARVIEW-UK . COM