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| The Ultimate Interview Part 3
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This is the final part of my in-depth interview with Ultimate and Ultimax's Andy Tain. The last instalment ended with Andy explaining that he became so involved with Ultimax stands that he bought the company outright…
What like Victor Kiam "I was so impressed I brought the company"!?
Well that all sounds a bit grand doesn't it. My background is in engineering and I still adore the invention, development and construction of ideas, which I think is where the Ultimax takeover came in. It's not a big company, but it has some really good and loyal people who have been there for years. With the addition of new blood and ideas, we were able to spend a lot of time developing new ways of doing things and finding solutions to the problems faced by DJs on a regular basis. Since taking over Ultimax we have developed a systematised way of running the whole business. This is so critical if you are going to manufacture in the UK. The inability to modernise, adapt and change, has strangled UK manufacturing over the years. We have to be mega-efficient to survive and compete with the Far East. We have honed our manufacturing process for no other reason than to develop the brand further. This has taken years; we took over the company three years ago and inevitably inherited some of the old ways. It's taken a long time to get that turned around and it will always be in a state of constant improvement. Now there are new products, some that we have had lined up for ages, that we can finally start getting out to the marketplace.
You mentioned the Far East, and I know that you are quite passionate about being a UK manufacturer, how come you don't manufacture abroad like so many others?
The whole philosophy behind Ultimax is top quality product, there is absolutely no point in us going into the low end market place, the Far East has got that covered and they have got it covered very well indeed. I have no problem with that whatsoever. If you want something cheap it's inevitably going to be manufactured in the Far East and that doesn't mean it isn't good value. It's just like buying hi-fi equipment. You can spend £30 or £5000 and get a CD system and there are 100 choices in-between.
Written By Eddie Short |
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The full article can be found in Pro Mobile Issue 26, Pages 26 - 30 |
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Copyright EJ Media 2003 - 2010
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