Award-winning CPL adapts to a new “normality”

Last year, Cambridge Precision Ltd won a number of awards for responsible business practice, including Archant’s “Business in the Community”, awarded by Hunts Post. They recently contacted us for an update and have this week published an article reflecting on the challenges faced since last Christmas and the impressive resilience and adaptability of the team. it reads …

“We are proud of our team and how they have adapted.

This week our focus turns to the Business in the Community Award, which was won by Cambridge Precision Ltd last year. The company is confident it remains a market leader in the production of complex components for hi-tech and med-tech use and has become an ambassador for British export, In fact, the Department for International Trade invited them to become a 2020 Export Champion. This involves helping define best practice and sharing it with others seeking to export effectively and responsibly.

When asked about some of the challenges since winning the award, a spokesman for the company, said: “Brexit was a frustration in 2018/19 in that many businesses were wary about making investment, growth and export decisions. We have strong partnerships with suppliers and clients in Europe and these will continue to grow in a revised market economy. Obviously, shortly into 2020, the Covid-19 crisis emerged, posing threats to supply chains and the challenge for us has been the consistent acquisition and import of materials, and then the subsequent timely dispatch across a global economy.”

Like many companies, Cambridge Precision answered the call from Government to support the production of respirators for NHS use. “We quickly took on contracts to develop and supply parts for a number of clients developing respirators and were also able to respond to an urgent call for specialist sample holders, destined for the US, which are being used to help develop a vaccine and to research the makeup of the Covid-19 virus,” the company says.

“We are justifiably proud of our team who have adapted to operation with a work-force partially based at home, a socially distanced manufacturing environment, and ever-increasing demand. Despite the adversity, we have managed to maintain and increase output – introducing a second night-shift operating to provide a 24/7 manufacturing service. We have always been responsive, but our adaptability and resourcefulness in this situation has to be noted as a company-wide success.”

“As the UK and global economy starts to recover we will expand our operation, increasing capacity and workforce. Strong internal relationships, and respectful and informed client and supplier relationships remain our strengths. A commitment to environmentally aware practice and to supporting critical technologies for a sustainable future, will, as ever, inform our progress.”

Published April 29,202 Hunts Post