Sand­hurst is some 30 miles south­west of London. The small town, with a popu­la­tion of about 21,000, is world-famous because the Royal Mili­tary Academy Sand­hurst is where all Her Majesty’s offi­cers in the British Army are trained.

Our first sales and service company in Europe was initially housed in a small office, but in 2000 we were already able to move into our current premises. Seven people presently work from Swan Lane to serve our customers.

After­sales play a key role

Managing Director Steve Quilt heads the small team that gener­ates an annual turnover of eight to ten million pounds. “About half of that comes from the sale of new machines”, says Quilt. “However, our after­sales services play a partic­u­larly impor­tant role. There are many older machines on the market, and they need main­te­nance and repair.” Quilt, who orig­i­nally came from the food sector, joined Uhlmann in 2007. He was appointed Managing Director in Sand­hurst in 2013.

Corona: Flex­ible in diffi­cult times

No-one is to be found in the Sand­hurst offices at present. Nearly every­body is working from home in these times of corona. What does that mean for neces­sary services? “We are only taking on really essen­tial service inquiries”, explains Quilt. “We are helping to mini­mize the risk of spreading the virus this way.” This situ­a­tion demands flex­i­bility on the part of the service tech­ni­cians. One who excels in this respect is Mark Kite.

Old hand capable of impro­vi­sa­tion

The trained preci­sion mechanic has been working in inter­na­tional service for years and started with Uhlmann UK in 1999. Thus, he was present from the very begin­ning. Over his years of service, Kite has gained expe­ri­ence second to none. He is relaxed and prag­matic about corona: Kite uses chat forums for customer inquiries and video soft­ware for onsite trou­bleshooting. “Although I prefer to support customers in person, in some cases I have been able to help customers more easily via video”, he reports. Just recently, Kite diag­nosed an urgent issue over a video confer­ence. Using mate­rial in his garden shed, he managed to impro­vise a solu­tion that was installed on site.

Despite Brexit: Opti­mistic look ahead

Of course, corona is not the only chal­lenge facing Uhlmann UK. Brexit is a “done deal” since February 1, 2020 – and will have an economic impact. Steve Quilt cannot say exactly what that means for Uhlmann UK: “A fore­cast is very diffi­cult, but our customer projects as well as the British economy are in good shape”, says the Managing Director. “Besides, we place great faith in poli­tics to make appro­priate agree­ments and provi­sions for the time after December 31, 2020.