NB: As a co-founder, what did you and your fellow founders have in mind when drawing up the blueprint for PartsForMachines?
AT: We come from large manufacturing industry backgrounds where companies typically spend upwards of 20% of revenue on selling and admin costs, and although these organisations do well in supporting large customers - they are often structurally unsuited to support the needs of smaller owner-operators such as farmers or workshop repairers.
In addition, we often found that companies tend to follow a "razor blade" model where the cost of parts is disproportionally higher, which puts a heavy burden on the cash flow of small businesses.
Our ambition with Partsformachines was to build a business that uses digitalisation and e-commerce principles, to create a low-cost operating business that provides a high-quality differentiated service to our customer and ease of identification of parts. Our rapid growth and excellent customer rating gives us confidence that we are on the right path in achieving this aim.
NB: Where did the experience come from to establish such a specialist business?
AT: As founders we bring diverse but complimentary skills, covering business development, finance, operations and platform development. For example, my first role right after college was to build Zambian operations of a small Indian manufacturing business. Since then, I have worked in organisations such as Finning-Caterpilllar, Shell Lubricants, ElementsSix-Debeers, and the Weir Group - to name a few - in a variety of roles spanning sales, strategy, and business development.
My co-founder worked in business evelopment at a large global manufacturer before going on to complete his MBA. Since then he has been working in a variety of finance leadership roles at a global conglomerate. Other key members are well versed in operations and platform development
NB: Was finance a problem for a start up with big ambitions?
AT: We "boot strapped" the business in its formative years as we wanted to test whether building a low cost, low working capital business would be feasible. But as we have transitioned from proof of concept to a scaling up phase, the need for capital has grown and we recently closed a seed round of investment that will allow us to continue to invest in building the right capabilities in the immediate future. However, as we continue to expand into new geographies, to invest in AI to support our customers, and to expand machinerefurb - so as to promote circular economy in the manufacturing industry - the need for investment will continue to grow and we will look for support from the UK government and venture investors in fuelling this growth.
NB: Was it difficult to get quality brands on board?
AT: We have been fortunate that many reputed brands in the UK have trusted us as their partner and we continue to add innovative UK industrial businesses onto our platform every month. However, we also recognise that we are working in a conservative industry, with concerns around the potential impact of e-commerce, therefore we have to work hard to build trust and comfort around the benefits of partnering with us.
NB: Has the business gone beyond just parts?
AT: Our ambition is to become the platform of choice for owners and operators of machinery in farming, construction, and workshops looking for parts and services for their machinery. We started our journey with partsformachines and recently launched machinerefurb - a business that supplies high quality refurbished machinery (like businesses who sell refurbished I-phones) that comes with a great warranty. Now we are also working to partner with repairers, in order to add machinery repair services onto our platform
NB: Have you been able to utilise AI to enhance your client offer?
AT: "Prompt engineering", "Claude", "Perplexity", "AI hallucinations" were terms I was definitely unaware of, at the start of this year! As a CEO, a good part of my time today is spent in following the rapid developments around AI and then reflecting on what this means for partsformachines and our customers. The use case for AI in industrial and manufacturing businesses is yet to be established and we want to be at the forefront of this change. We are developing AI capabilities in 3 different ways. One, to increase process efficiency and communicate more effectively with our customer base; Two, to provide more choice and clear information to our customers on the platform and, Three, to support our customers creating more value in what they do with the use of AI. We have 3 different AI capabilities in the development and testing phase, that we will aim to launch within 6 months.
NB: Do your ambitions go beyond the UK?
AT: We are enhancing the capabilities of our platform to expand into European markets, starting with Ireland. We will aim to differentiate ourselves by adding exciting new features in local languages via the use of AI.
NB: Finally, has the progress made since the business opened its doors been everything you had planned for?
AT: We have come a long way, and I am delighted with our progress, so much so that I took the plunge in early April this year, and am now dedicating my time fully to developing partsformachines. We are constantly evolving as a business, looking to add new capabilities and ideas that will support our customers. The life of an entrepreneur seeking to disrupt a traditional industry throws constant challenges, but this is what motivates me to get up every morning, and it will, I believe, bring partsformachines success.
For further information please visit PartsForMachines
