Company profile

Citation

Ling, J. (2011), "Company profile", Circuit World, Vol. 37 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/cw.2011.21737dab.013

Company profile

Article Type: Appointments From: Circuit World, Volume 37, Issue 4

eXception Group

Leading from the front-end

eXception is a group of three companies, with the printed circuits manufacturing and the Far East trading companies located in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, and their EMS plant in Calne in Wiltshire. eXception is a true OMS company offering full turnkey solutions through from design to delivery, with rapid turnaround of orders as required. Historians of the printed circuit board (PCB) industry will be aware that the foundation of it all lay with the existence of Zlin in Tewkesbury and Calne Electronics in Wiltshire before a name change, a brief flirtation with DDi, and then a marriage of total convenience which took place early in the new century.

MD of eXception in Tewkesbury is Gordon Holden, who is also the Group CTO. A PCB man of very considerable experience, he explained that eXception were now very close to the trading position they were in 2003 before the market irrevocably changed. They have experienced 10 per cent growth year on year, and have survived by trimming costs, an exercise not without considerable pain. Yet they have retained the key skills and have recently supplemented these with the appointment of eight university graduates from the electronics, chemistry and mechanical engineering schools. They have also taken on four apprentices, each of whom has a mentor, and all of whom graduated from Gloucester Technical College.

About 40 per cent of the work force originates from Eastern Europe, and Gordon laments the malaise that has struck the British work ethic in the last 20 years. He cited the case of one young local lad who they took on with a view of training him in various departments as time progressed. He lasted one week, the shock of having to work eight hours a day for five days at stretch was too much, apparently. Gordon is also less than complimentary about the mindset of the political class who failed to value the private sector, manufacturing in particular, which, unlike the public sector, is a wealth creator, as may be evidenced with the strong economic recovery and performances of those countries such as France and Germany who have preserved their manufacturing industries.

“Engineering solutions provider” is the copywriters glib text for a brochure, but interprets correctly as a description of a company that understands customer requirements and understands their own capabilities, and from that position of strength they offer design through to manufacture against a background of knowledge of the disciplines involved. The days when a designer and a PCB manufacturers were at variance on what was, and what was not, possible, are now gone – eXception have brought all this “in-house” and have people with experience outside pure PCB manufacture with a broad spread of skills. This is complimented with a sales force who is experienced in testing and manufacturing and can thus provide technical support as required, but who are for the most part involved with product development. The trick here is to engage with the customer early, and become involved with the design and develop the technology needed. This is a good working practice and makes for good working partnerships.

eXception enjoy working with several hundred faithful customers, most of whom have a requirement for products at the high end of technology, and most of whom actively use the eXception integrated design service design for manufacture. These are Tier 2 companies working in the medical, defence and communications sectors. Typically they produce boards with 20μ definition, for 0.2 pitches BGA and FPGA. About 70 per cent of the boards they produce are HDI, this is increasing, and about 60 per cent of production goes abroad, mainly Europe. Given the shakeout in the PCB manufacturing sector in the UK over the last eight years, Gordon is now happier with the supply situation than he was. Certainly the choice is now more limited, but that seems to have pushed a greater feeling of responsibility onto the suppliers, rather than complacency, and he now single sources all his chemistry (Atotech) and laminate (Ventec) where strong technical support is at hand.

Gordon Holden is an Engineer by nature and by training. His particular field is in front-end where he worked for 16 years with, initially, British Aerospace in Preston, and then via Cleveland Guest to TDS in Blackburn in the 1980s who were in need of establishing “best practice” in multilayer board production, as they were targeting the growing EMS market. From there he joined Classical Circuits as Operations Director only to see it being taken over by Zincocelere in Italy just before production dropped like a stone from three shifts, seven days a week, to one shift five days a week. A chastened group of Italians gave Gordon the task of rebuilding the company, which he did, along with a dedicated team of colleagues, and although it took them seven years, by the end they were running a world-class manufacturing programme, using modular production techniques. Thus, it attracted the attention of Symonds Engineering who was on the acquisition trail at the time. Symonds also bought Zlin, along with Finishing Technology Ltd, Finishing Services Ltd, and Garner Osborne, before selling on to the DDi Group. Through the swirling tide of change, Gordon emerged relatively unscathed with his technical reputation intact to run eXception.

eXception VAR is their Far East arm, and here they meet their belief that the Far East is not a threat, but a business opportunity, and by working with companies in Asia are able to bring high technology to customers in volume numbers. Investment in people and investment in machinery are two key elements in eXception; recent appointments indicate their commitment to the former, and a case is being made for a capital expenditure in seven figures to bring themselves bang up to date, with a great emphasis on test for reliability.

The £50 million eXception group is a group in all senses of the word. They are in turn a contract manufacturer, from design through to prototyping thence to volume production, they are a PCB manufacturer, from prototyping through to medium volume production runs, who have designed their own microvia tower processes and flat pad technology for the high-density interconnect boards that they produce in Tewkesbury. Products include multi-layer boards from four- to 32-layer count, blind, buried and micro vias, IC substrates, flex, flex rigid, with impedance control as standard. The PCB division carries with it over 20 years experience serving the particular markets that form the lynchpin of the work done at eXception. Market sectors are covered by VAR include automotive, industrial, EMS, energy and leisure, with the EMS division looking after industrial, transportation, aerospace and defence, oil and gas, as well as scientific research, networks and broadcasting. Their customer base, depending upon which division one refers to, covers the UK, mainland Europe, and Asia.

There may have been a loss of appetite for manufacture in the UK, but at eXception there is a perfect role model of what can be done, and achieved by sheer hard work and determination. There is a clear vision here for the future, with some new eyes, some old hands and some hard-earned wisdom, plus a unique approach to customers, whose fidelity is evidence of the alpha plus excellence at eXception.

John LingAssociate Editor