ATG – Your strategic global sourcing partner.

Sourcing your products from overseas can be baffling to say the least and in this day and age companies are increasingly reliant on sourcing specific components for machine builds and even complete projects.

Complete Global Supply Chain Management is not overly common in the Quarrying, Recycling and Bulk Handling Industries but ATG has been quietly building a reputation that is second to none in this speciality.

ATG offers a complete financed project and through its international engineering teams who work closely with chosen factories to ensure that ISO processes are fully implemented, guaranteeing all parts meet the required quality standard.

Launched 10 years ATG was one of the first members of the CEA that was not a UK manufacture and was accepted on the basis of their innovative and totally different business model.

Today ATG, with huge success behind them work with manufacturers of commodities in China, India and South East Asia and supply a range of components, assemblies and sub-assemblies to OEMS in a variety of industries including mining and construction, waste recycling, agriculture, transportation, earth moving, marine and material processing.

Managing risk to give a client the competitive edge:
The HUB team went along to the Nottingham base and sat down with the Group Managing Director – Shaun Edwards to get the lowdown on where the company is now.

Shaun originally worked for a Chinese company who were heavily into the construction industry and with the onslaught of 2008/9 global recession Shaun decided to launch ATG with a more diverse multi-industry offering.

This move proved hugely successful with diverse product lines offered to multiple industries with the parts supplied from China.

Shaun, commented, “As the business grew the managing team increased with it, and today we have 50 employees  Globally. Last year we experienced a growth of 30% and this year we see more increased growth with a global turnover of $20 million. Over time we have used our expertise for product-sourcing, and it has proved a key philosophy in the business.”

Shaun expanded and told us that although their main supply is currently from China their on-going focus is to further diversify the number of countries that they source the product from.

Shaun added, “All of our growth is down to the business model which ensures our clients receive a quality product in the timeframe they expect.

“Castings on crushers and recycling equipment parts are very complicated and a lot can go wrong as it’s a different level of material that is used on these machines. The components are critical, and the key is ensuring is that the material used is within strict tolerance and meets the criteria. This all comes together and then products can be delivered ‘fit for purpose’ which is achieved by our ‘feet on the ground” ensuring a correct process with components supplied to exact specification. “

ATG has proved that consistency is the key with 20 engineers covering the far east. Growth was steady and in the first 5 years new teams in India and the South East of Asia worked with factories on castings, fabrications and machine components all of which were checked and despatched including a component check-list.

With logistics, scheduled delivery and finance arranged for the whole shipment ‘total’ ATG project management eliminates any issues and minimize the risks to the client.

Shaun further commented, “What we have found in the last few years is that customers who have bought direct, are now passing the job to us because of our growing reputation.”

With industry demands increasing ATG currently find itself in a boom period and with forward orders for the whole of 2019 the company are recruiting more staff.

Qualification by product range:
The current focus in the company are the product lines and the emphasis is on castings and forgings, fabrications, precision components, composites and plastics. As 38% of the product lines are castings this heavily underlines the qualification of ATG as a company as these lend themselves to many guarantees with this range - castings, wear plates, shredder teeth, ground engaging teeth.

New premises:
Currently looking for bespoke new premises at a second location is high on the agenda for the company and to service the projected growth it needs to be a minimum 25,000 sq. ft facility that will grow with ATG.

Working in China alone involvement is huge with nearly all containers delivered direct to the client. The company have had to understand and deal with components up to 7 tonnes in weight and the new premises must reflect this.

Further on-going development:
Shaun expanded on the future, “We launched ATG USA in 2015 and we have utilised our India manufacturers to supply the US market parts which tend to be bigger, crusher jaws for example to handle more throughput.

We also intend to grow the team in the Far East as these manufacturers are our major asset, therefore for each new product line we will add a team. We have a significant number of welding engineers and we will add production and manufacturing engineers to assist the factories because ultimately these are our suppliers and we are in their hands, so we need to assist them to produce it correctly and quicker and on-time to the cost level we require.

“Ultimately, it’s becoming easier as we understand the quality required as the manufacturers now do, which over time has developed a large and friendly knowledgeable team.

“Alongside all of this we have a development plan, auditing, H&S and other key factors and we take clients and show them where the components are manufactured and they can buy with confidence which adds to our growing reputation.”

ATG are also building their team in India to eliminate total dependency on China and although dealing with a different culture, it’s having a positive effect on the source diversification of the business.

The UK team are also working with manufacturers in Thailand and Malaysia and are despatching a Chinese team to the factory in Malaysia to help them cope in the early stages.

Shaun summarised, “Essentially we have four companies operating; our HQ in the UK, sales in Boston USA and two manufacturing sites based in Zibo in Shangdong Province, China and Bangalore in India, and we also have a number of suppliers very good contact in Kuala Lumpur so we hope we will eventually be located there.”

It looks like a very busy time ahead for ATG as the growing global sourcing specialist.