Hatching a new company

The urgently needed spare part package arrives speedily at the laundry—with a surprise. Packaging chips surrounding the component are made of wheat and rice—and can be fed to ducks.

Ducker UK, a new company pledged to offer exceptional service in laundry equipment supply and customer support, has been launched....and bio-degradable, duck-attractive packaging is just one example of attention to detail and purposeful “fun”. Pre-launch marketing has been duck-linked.

The driving force behind the launch is Chris Ducker, company chairman.

“Today, more than ever before, customers want a supplier to understand their business requirements,” Mr Ducker says.

“Equipment throughout the laundry has become more and more integrated, and so it is better to have one supplier. It is necessary to know how one piece of kit will fit in with others—the supplier must have all-round knowledge.

“Customers are looking to form ‘partnerships’ with suppliers they can trust, and for continuity—they want to deal with the same key people in the supplier company.

“Also, launderers are looking for distributors able to handle turnkey projects. We manage these, right from the design stage.” Ducker UK is aiming for total service excellence, he states, adding: “We are equal to anything else available now, but we will be building further to reach our high targets.

“With service support, people are looking for something far ahead of anything already delivered.

“Service excellence means monitoring to ensure deliveries are on time. We can review delivery performance per hour, day or week, and by product, company department and market sector.” Mr Ducker continues: “Anyone communicating with a customer will input details of the contact—what the customer wants, by when, and who will take action. Deadline times are cross-referenced automatically.

“Wherever I am in the world I can, with a laptap computer, look into the system and see immediately what the current picture is and what needs to be done today and tomorrow.” Special software developed for Ducker UK is named QACC which stands for Quick Action Customer Care. The company can analyse the performance of operations, and look for—and quickly respond to—any weaknesses. When a customer phones the company, his or her details are immediately shown on a computer screen thanks to a telephone-computer direct link.

“It’s impossible for any company to get everything right immediately,” Mr Ducker points out. “It is crucial to monitor closely not where we are getting it right but where we are getting it wrong.

“We must have the right product knowledge, the right parts in stock, the right people in the right places, and the right level of engineering ability.

“A supplier needs to invest to achieve high levels of service and support. It is difficult to build up an engineering team of quality staff, and much time has to be spent on training. We have to charge a price that reflects this. Price is not critical for the customer, but value for money is.

“We have to demonstrate to customers that we can lower their costs and improve their profitability. Our marketing campaign is strong and we want to meet people’s expectations—which are now high.” Mr Ducker says a way for the Ducker group to move forward with growth had been sought for some five years.

“We had to go for growth,” he states. “Ducker Engineering and sister company Supertrack have been operating really successfully in their fields, doing well in the UK and also with export turnover. Improvement, in their product ranges, and in meeting market demands, will continue.”