Global supplier of C-Parts Bufab

GLoBaL SuPPLIER of c-Parts

Bufab Poland, headquartered in Gdansk, is a leading supplier of C-Parts, from traditional fasteners to complicated processed and assembled components made from various materials. The company is a part of the Bufab Group, an international giant that offers its customers full-service solutions for sourcing, quality control and logistics for C-Parts. Dariusz Balcerzyk reports.

Bufab was founded in 1977 in Sweden. Since then, it has enjoyed 40 years of growth and stability through a consistent focus on delivering value to its customers. This strategy has led the company to its position as the leading supplier of components and services to the worldwide manufacturing industry. It is now an international giant, with 35 subsidiaries in 25 countries, and delivers its products to 13,000 customers. With 1000 employees, its net sales for the past 12 months amounted to SEK 2.9 billion (€300 million) and its operating margin was 10 per cent. Bufab is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm.

The group offers more than 140,000 separate products made to almost any imaginable specification, held in stock across its 28 warehouses worldwide. These components include C-Parts, such as metal or plastic fasteners (screws, bolts, nuts, rivets, pins, washers, etc.); and other small metal, rubber or plastic parts including cables, springs and electronic fasteners. Bufab also offers a comprehensive range of standard parts in a variety of materials including carbon steel, stainless steel and brass – manufactured according to all commonly used standards on the market (e.g. DIN, ISO, NFE and AFNOR). There are also special products manufactured according to customer specifications via processes such as stamping, injection moulding, casting, cold forming, hot forging and turning, in materials such as sheet metal, plastic, rubber, zinc alloy or aluminium.

Furthermore, through its highly advanced in-house kitting solutions and network of partners, the group can supply a customer with almost any kind of kit needed to distribute their products. Additionally, Bufab can take on the warehousing and logistics operations required for a customer-specific product and can take responsibility for timely delivery to the production line. By combining many components into an assembled part and delivering the result to the customer, Bufab can reduce both direct and indirect costs, as well as achieving a reduction in the overall number of suppliers needed.

BUMAX, Bufab’s registered trademark, is known as the strongest stainless-steel bolt in the world. It is manufactured at Bufab’s plants in Sweden and meets the requirements of the most highly demanding customers when it comes to quality, corrosion resistance, strength, traceability and heat resistance. Some of the products in the BUMAX family are completely unique and cannot be found anywhere else on the market. All BUMAX products have full traceability (with 3.1 certificates available for each item).

Polish market leader

The Polish branch of Bufab has been operating for almost 30 years. It was founded in 1989 as a local company named BTT Automatyka. In 1990, it began its collaboration with Bulten Stainless AB and, eight years later, the Swedish company took over BTT. In 2004, the company achieved the highest sales of stainless steel components in Poland. The next year saw the acquisition of Bulten Stainless AB by the Bufab Group.

“Soon after, we changed our name to Bufab Polska to emphasise the fact that we are a full member of the Bufab Group,” says Jaroslaw Bazeli, Bufab Poland’s president of the board. “At that time, we fully integrated our ERP systems with the Bufab Group and began focusing on end-user activity (medium and large production plants), increasing our sales of special items and carbon steel components and reducing our distribution of stainless steel products. In 2014, Bufab Poland moved to a newly constructed warehouse with space for 1640 pallets, enabling it to maintain all the required stock levels for our customers. We also installed a new automated packaging facility. Our annual growth rate (CAGR) for 2009–2016 was 31 per cent, and our forecast sales growth in 2017 compared to 2016 is estimated at 12 per cent.”

With three production sites Bufab Poland now offers the Bufab Group’s full range of services and products, including those services described as ‘Global Parts Productivity’. “Bufab takes an end-to-end

responsibility for the management of C-Parts, allowing our customers to focus on their core business. We call this Global Parts Productivity. Its aim is to improve the productivity and quality of C-Part manufacturing for customers and to achieve fast and secure delivery, reduce total costs and free up capital,” says Mr Bazeli.

The group’s core strategy includes maintaining a strong supplier base. “We strive to be a desirable partner to our suppliers; demanding but solid, ensuring common development goals. Bufab Group has introduced its supplier classification and auditing system, supporting the development of companies that want to grow with us. We learn from each other. We are also going to deepen our relationship with key suppliers by offering partnership contracts,” he adds.

Benefits of group membership

Today Bufab Poland is one of the largest companies in the Bufab Group. Since 2015, it has been developing a service centre for logistics and global sales. It also houses the regional administration centre for the group’s activities in Russia, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary, Turkey and Estonia.

“We are a highly motivated team of professionals, familiar with many different sectors of industry including fasteners, metal components, manufacturing and logistics. We specialise in complex industrial supplies. The group constantly invests in our team’s professional development and our highly trained and carefully selected staff allow us to provide top quality services to our customers in Poland. In my opinion, we are a modern example of the opportunities that are open to a small, local company when it becomes part of a larger group; Bufab offers interesting options for the company’s further development.

“The group looks for stable, local companies that are well managed and have a strong brand. It is an industrial investor, not a financial one: its strategy is to develop each company within the group in order to build value for the Bufab Group shareholders, the acquired company and its owners,” concludes Mr Bazeli. n

SGP Group- Thinking about quality

SGP Pl was established in Czestochowa in 2006 as a respond to the market demand and aiming to provide the highest quality to our customers. Since 2006 SGP Group has been supporting companies in providing the highest quality of manufactured products. Company is experts in following services: selection, sorting and repairing parts, components and finished products. We recruit and train employees for every branch of industry.

Customers are medium and large companies, mainly from the automotive, home appliances, audio/video appliances, glass, food, pharmaceuticals, footwear and clothing industry. SGP Group can provide services to almost every manufacturing industry.

Quality policy in times of rapid growth of enterprise’s competitiveness is one of the key areas in every production facility. unceasing striving for quality improvement of manufactured goods enforces reorganisation of production area and quality, but not only. In what way one can improve the activity of the quality department? How to more effectively control one’s production quality? SGP Group will help you solve the problem !

SGP Group guarantees:

• Full responsibility for the undertaken projects and their results • Trained, motivated stuff, supervised by experienced and compe tent coordinators • Availability of services in Poland and in those European coun tries, where the SGP Group subsidiaries are operating • Following the customers’ needs, flexible adjustment of provided services at home and abroad • Over 11 years of experience in executing similar projects • Expanded network of experts/ residents in the European countries (at the premises of our Customers)

Role of outsourcing offered by SGP Group: reducing quality costs, reducing production costs, reducing HR costs and increasing operational flexibility of companies.

Why SGP Group?

• Safety • Flexibility • Competence • Costs optimisation • Reaction time • Preparation • Coordination