AN Airdrie-based business which specialises in packaging machinery repair, service and installation continues to go from strength to strength – despite many of its customers not knowing what the company name is!
Experienced packaging industry stalwart Billy Angus founded Central Machine Services (CMS) in 2011, initially focusing on machinery repair and installation. That remains a core aspect of the business, which has since branched out into supplying packaging materials including machine stretch film, hand stretch film, heat seal banding tape, and shrink wrap. The company also dabbles in machinery sales, though Billy admits he’s more interested in fixing an old model than selling a new one.
Due to the firm’s knowledge and experience of a wide range of packaging machinery, much of CMS’s work is sub-contract jobs carried out on behalf of some of the largest companies in the industry. As such, the firm’s vehicles and uniforms are unmarked as the business doesn’t work exclusively with any manufacturer or supplier.
Billy told Packaging Scotland that the machines CMS work on vary from six months to 45-years-old, when asked if the cost-of-living crisis is prompting companies to hang onto machinery for longer. “There are people stretching their assets a little bit further,” he explained. “It really depends; it’s case-by-case. Ultimately if you break (our work) down it’s electrical, mechanical and pneumatic. It could be on a wide range of machines from banding and strapping to shrink wrapping and pallet wrapping. That’s before you go into the niche machines we look after such as Form Fill Seal (FFS) machines, filling machines, labelling machines, baling machines. There is a whole different genre of machines outwith packaging we look after as well.”
Billy said the most typical issue he’s asked to resolve is damage to a machine. CMS offers a wide range of parts as well as an emergency breakdown response, describing the importance of minimising downtime as “100% critical”.
“A lot of customers have only got one or two lines,” Billy added. “Nobody has a machine doing nothing. If they’ve got a machine down, it means they are losing a portion of their productivity. A couple of customers have got one production line, so if part of that line fails then it’s tens of thousands of pounds they’re losing for every hour that machine’s not running. It’s critical that we respond to that quickly.”
Billy recalled being asked to attend a breakdown at 9pm one Good Friday, emphasising the pride he has in providing a rapid response time when required.
In terms of geographical reach, CMS covers the whole of Scotland and the north of England. As the company has grown, a second experienced engineer has been recruited alongside someone who deals with the admin side. CMS has external storage facilities to keep materials, though Billy states they are ‘effectively mobile engineers’ as the bulk of the firm’s work is carried out on-site.
The CMS unique selling point is very simple – no one does what they do! “I genuinely don’t know anybody else who does what we do,” Billy stated. “Manufacturers have got their own engineers, but they only touch their own machines. One of the things that’s different about us is that if we go to a customer who has three different types of machines, we will fix all three of them. We’re not specific to one manufacturer. An issue some of our customers have is they have maybe got two different machines from two different manufacturers, meaning they have to deal with two different companies to sort that. What we bring to the table is that when we come in, we will carry out routine maintenance, service and repairs on whatever kit is there.
“I would say probably 90% of our business is repeat business. We’ll maybe go to fix a pallet wrapper and end up servicing a strapper as well or shrink wrapper, so it creates a relationship. It gives the customer confidence as they know if they have a problem on one of their other machines, we’re happy to go in and do whatever’s required.”
The decision to start supplying packaging materials was prompted by a customer request to provide material compatible with their particular machine. All the materials CMS supply are specific to the machines it deals with.
“We’re not a packaging shop,” Billy said. “There is a lot of material out there that is cheaper, and we’ve came across it where we’ve (been called out) to a machine with problems due to the material. We know that all the material we supply will work on that machine.”
The long-term plan for CMS is expansion and potentially bringing on board another engineering if the work dictates that. There are no set timeframes, however. “We’re happy where we are the moment,” Billy concluded. “If we can grow, great. If we don’t it’s not the end of the world, our business won’t change.”
