Yacht firm rides cool wave of success

The contract is a major coup for Kettering-based Cooney Marine as it opens up a new product market for the company which produces fabricated, mirror finish, stainless steel yacht equipment and deck fittings.

Operations director Andy Sims explained: "The tube work used for the pulpits – that’s the rails that go round the side of a boat – can often be in excess of 100 feet long so because of their size and the fact that they need to arrive in spotless condition, they can't practically be imported. This gave us a perfect opportunity to diversify and get a foothold in this new market."

Winning the contract was just part of the challenge though. Cooney then needed to get production of this new product off the ground in super quick time to keep pace with turnaround needed which is why they called upon the expertise of MAS East Midlands.

MAS practitioner John Ransford said: "They urgently needed help getting the manufacturing process going and this meant reorganising the current floor space and reviewing the company’s present customer base."

"Working closely with managing director James Cooney and his team, we created additional floor space providing enough room to make the tubing and polish it. We had to do a clever rethink of how to rearrange the current factory layout, freeing up as much dead space as possible."

Lasers scan a yacht’s dimensions on-site and these measurements are then used to produce a jig that Cooney sets as its template for the tubing – the company needs to produce 15 pulpits a week under this new contract.

MAS East Midlands also helped James Cooney introduce production control systems which are helping considerably with scheduling, cost control and on-time deliveries.

James said: "With better shop floor data now available, on-time deliveries are already up from 55% to 80% and are continuing to improve. We’ve also managed to recover all the lost time on the first orders that came through which is fantastic."

"We’ve received support from MAS before to help us streamline our operation and improve our efficiency and I can’t praise them enough. As well as changing around production and getting manufacturing going, John’s help is also having a significant impact on improving our margins and keeping our costs under control."

Cooney is expected to turn over around £4.5m this year, a £1m rise on 2007. The family-owned business which operates from Telford Way Industrial Estate just outside the town and employs nearly 70 local people, makes everything from cleats and hinges to metalwork on decks and passerelles, the hydraulically-controlled walkways.