Klarius Invests £1.2 million in UK Manufacturing

Klarius Group, the exhaust manufacturer, reports that it is currently enjoying success despite the challenging market having invested £1.2 million in its UK manufacturing and R&D facilities over the last 18 months. According to the company, the investment has gone into moving production arrangements over to lean manufacturing, fast track product development for exhausts and catalytic converters and in-house logistics facilities.

The Klarius Group was formed in August 2007 following the acquisition of the Emissions Control activities of ArvinMeritor Light Vehicle Aftermarket Europe. In its final year of trading prior to the acquisition (2006/2007), the Emissions Control division registered a £7 million operating loss. However, since the Klarius takeover this has been turned around, as evidenced by the Group’s first set of accounts which reveal that Klarius moved into profit well within its first full year of trading. Favourable euro exchange rates have also combined with a strong international sales approach to secure new supply agreements and install new distribution facilities and warehousing across Europe.

“The growth that we have achieved so far is impressive; but it is only the start,” said Tony Wilson, chairman and principle shareholder of the Klarius group, adding: “We are investing and succeeding with a new highly responsive business model that recognises the needs of the market, as they arise across Europe, and then adapts quickly to react to them. With the current and ongoing demands of the aftermarket, it is critical that manufacturers adapt and build a capacity to adapt to market demands on an hourly basis.”

Klarius specialises in supplying large automotive service networks, motor factors and buying groups. All serving the automotive aftermarket; a sector known for its demanding requirements in terms of model variants, price and delivery. Yet despite these demands, Klarius has grown its business consistently, achieving a 98.7 per cent delivery rate across its UK factories; all as a direct result of the strategic investments in lean manufacturing, training, new production processes and logistics.

The scale of this achievement, in what is a recessionary environment, can be judged from the fact that the current Klarius exhaust range across Europe includes over 5,500 references; all are available from a carefully controlled stock. Klarius is highly reactive to market needs; its design, technical and lean manufacturing facilities providing the mechanism that takes products from initial enquiry to market in a matter of days.

“While manufacturers have to be dynamic to meet supply demands, they must also develop high quality parts quickly, or they will fail to cater sufficiently for the market,” said Paul Hannah, business development director at Klarius Group.

Increased R&D spending

The company’s increased R&D spending has resulted in the creation of a new technical centre and test track, based at the main UK manufacturing plant in Cheadle, Staffordshire. This facility has brought new product development cycle times down from months which previously was typical for the industry to just days.

Klarius’ Fast Track Cat Development Centre is a prime example of how has aimed to increase its responsiveness to the market. The centre can develop, test and manufacture a new catalytic converter in under a week to meet requests from distributors and retailers. Importantly these converters are type-approved, meaning they effectively integrate with the existing (OBD) sensor systems on vehicles, avoiding the problems with cheaper, non Type Approved catalytic converters. According to Klarius representatives, these often fail a car’s own emissions sensing requirements soon after fitting and show a dash warning light, demanding another replacement.

This, and the apparent “continued problems with non type approved” exhaust parts, has led Klarius to mount a campaign, lobbying the UK Government to make type-approval mandatory, as it is already in all other EU countries. Motorists are starting to expect their replacement components to last longer, so fitting a better quality replacement, a type-approved CAT or exhaust product, for example, makes economic sense.

The UK is the only country in Western Europe where this is the case. 2 million Klarius exhaust systems are fitted each year in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Scandinavia, for example, and so its products already have to meet type-approval. Klarius points out that it is the only company manufacturing exhausts in the UK that does type approve its products which means customers buying from its competitors are not guaranteed to receive a replacement that matches the specification of their car’s original exhaust.