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A business journey with the University of Huddersfield

Associated Utility Supplies (AUS) Ltd thrive through enduring partnership with University!

The University of Huddersfield plays a huge part in local business support, through multiple available services across the University departments.

Local Huddersfield business, AUS was introduced to the Business Growth & Productivity Service (BGPS) at the University of Huddersfield by their business coach. BGPS fronts the University’s wide variety of business support services and is made up of two key programmes which cover the Leeds City Region; The Supply Chain Programme and The Manufacturing Champions Programme. October 2016 marked the first of eight successful projects between AUS and The University of Huddersfield, two of which were carried out by the Supply Chain Programme.

“We have really enjoyed our relationship with the University of Huddersfield and feel both parties have benefitted from the partnership. We’ve always found them very professional and genuinely excited about the innovation projects that we have carried out together.”

- Simon Gibson, Managing Director at AUS.

Whilst AUS is very strong from the technical perspective and had a very clear strategic need for future growth, they were lacking in a range of areas to support this. The broader needs of the business were discussed with managing director, Simon Gibson and a project was developed; based on this work they applied for a grant to support them .In September 2020, the LCR Supply Chain Programme and advisor Rob Woollin launched a project to help AUS and their journey towards further success.

A clear marketing strategy and associated marketing activity plan was essential to attain the growth ambition of AUS. Development of a 3-year growth plan (covering all aspects of the business) and plan to prioritise projects for the next 12 months to achieve this growth was vital, this had a strong focus on marketing, to create opportunities for the sales function. The business benefitted significantly by engaging a consultant (Lisa Lister of Progress Marketing) to support and challenge the in-house team to develop a business and marketing strategy.

In addition, AUS required the development of a customer journey map, embracing the stages of awareness, consideration, decision, design, manufacturing, delivery, retention, and referral. Key focus areas were marketing scoping (in terms of actions, timescales, budgets, resourcing and measurables), content creation, schedule, structure, and client persona activity.

After approval the work with AUS continued and they applied for a further Supply Chain grant. A further project with the Supply Chain Programme and advisor Rob Woollin, was undertaken in November 2020, with a focus on COVID recovery. The grant was for a specific tooling system to allow the company to increase productivity after winning contracts based on the work above.

AUS had been awarded a prestigious new contract from Network Rail to be the sole supplier and manufacturer of a new electric cantilever that will lead to a replacement programme across the entire electric network. To meet demand, the new product needed to be assembled on-site. For this to happen, a new tool was required that had been manufactured by a subcontractor.

In addition to the projects carried out by the Supply Chain Programme, AUS also embarked on multiple other projects, utilising the wide range of business support available from the University. This included two Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, two first of a kind projects, and two projects with the Manufacturing Champions Programme.

You can find out more about the Supply Chain Programme and the other support available from the University of Huddersfield by contacting our friendly team of advisors here.

Read our full blog post on the AUS journey here

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