BOUNCING BACK:Enterprising trio have a recession-busting formula – hard work and ensuring the customer really is king
SOME COMPANIES announce their intention to hire new staff with much fanfare; ministers gadding about grabbing the glory on the Six-Onenews and IDA executives puffing out their chests whilst waiving statistics under any interested nose.
Others prefer not to make too much noise about their success. Focus Scientific Solutions (FSS), based in Stamullen, Co Meath, is one such enterprise which is far too busy getting on with the business of generating business for now and in the future to care much for theatrics over hiring new staff or announcements of new contracts won.
Mary Shannon, Liam Coughlan and Mike O’Connor worked for many years for AGB, a medical supply and technical services company, and when that company was subsumed into VWR, a large multinational, the three entrepreneurs decided to cut and run.
With personal borrowings and some funding from Fingal County Enterprise Board, the highly experienced trio set up Focus Scientific Solutions Ltd. They had spotted a gap in the market for technical expertise, sales and services in the pharmaceutical and related industries, a gap for a small, customer-focused company which could offer a human face with quality expertise to this highly technical and regulation-driven industry.
From their start-up in 2007 their turnover reached €600,000 in their first year, then doubled and then trebled.
“So,” Shannon says, “we had almost immediate justification for what we did. We offer a very price-competitive service for our customers, we sell and service many different products for example laboratory consumables, high-tech apparatus and machinery, from several different manufacturers and we offer a package which is uniquely tailored to each individual customer.”
With customers such as universities, RD companies, dairy, science and other laboratories, Government bodies and biotech and aforementioned pharmaceutical industries, FSS is well placed to provide a flexible, value-for-money package in this highly regulated section of Irish industry.
“Fifty per cent of the time we might not make a sale but by going out and making contact, we will have developed a relationship with a potential customer,” Liam Coughlan explains.
The company has so far expanded its customer base into the UK, Belgium and Italy.
So is this business one that might possibly escape the ravages of the dreaded recession? According to Mary Shannon, it is not recession proof.
“Our margins have been hit and we’ve had to sell more to make up for that. We’ve had to change as we go along, always looking for new opportunities and diversifying, becoming more efficient. As in our name, we look for solutions. Everyone is under pressure these days.
“It may be hackneyed to say it, but our customer really is king. We are taking a long-term view of things, smaller margins at first but service revenue will come on stream later.”
These business people really are taking a long-term view. All their profits have been ploughed back into the company and they have teamed with a multinational to provide proficiency testing and certification for new products. In 2009 the company achieved ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) accreditation, a worldwide, industry-standard accreditation.
And they have managed to engineer replacement parts of very expensive equipment and have them specially designed to their own improved specifications. Initially they aim to supply Europe, then the rest of the world.
Director Mike O’Connor also has plans to take on the large players. “FSS would like to extend the life of instruments by producing and sourcing alternative parts for our customers, saving them money and time and future-proofing our company while we are at it.”
The immediate future looks pretty proofed.
As previously mentioned, FSS are HIRING, looking for sales personnel to join their team of nine staff.
Shannon sings the praises of their staff, many with an engineering or technical background. “They are enthusiastic and work very hard. We all do, e-mails at midnight are common, our families see us at weekends now. For the first two years they didn’t, it was non- stop.”
O’Connor agrees: “We like to respond the same day to our customers and they in turn appreciate that. From customer feedback we have set up an online service environment to make it easier for them to access a call out or service or to get certification. Customers can access their own documents on a secure site. With developments like this we can stay one step ahead of our competitors.”
So no paralysis for this trio, in the face of a takeover of the country by the IMF-ECB, dancing to the tune of “the markets”?
"God no," laughs Liam Coughlan, "I turn off all that stuff, the Frontline, Prime Timeand what have you. I'm usually working anyway."
Far too busy for the IMF? Way to go Focus Scientific Solutions . . .
www.focusscientific.ie Focus Scientific Solutions Ltd, Unit 12 Block 3 City North Business Campus, Stamullen, Co Meath. Tel 01 8834964