UK Based Manufacturer Uses International Markets to Beat Local Recession

Information & Communications Technology (ICT) manufacturer & global energy giant, Schneider Electric, today announced that its NetShelter CX product has expanded operations into significant new international markets in the last year. The South-West based NetShelter CX Team - makers of portable, soundproofed server cabinets - now export to Latin America, Japan, China, Russia and South America, all from a manufacturing facility in Frome, Somerset.

The company’s unique ‘Server Room in a Box’ solution to Datacentre storage dramatically reduces the costs and environmental implications associated with the operation of a traditional server room, and allows for the deployment of computer server technology within the open office space. In typical usage, the Netshelter CX can reduce can reduce server noise by a perceived 90% and - when compared to a traditional server room - reduce floor space by 90%, operating costs by 98%, and capital costs by up to 80%.

International Acclaim
Netshelter CX already boasts an impressive Global portfolio of 5,000+ customers using the product, from SMEs to businesses and institutions of all shapes and sizes including the likes of Walt Disney, Innocent Drinks, Boeing, Shell, the BBC, and even The White House. Having joined the APC by Schneider Electric family in June 2011, and scooped the Award for Most Innovative Product for Corporate at the Latin American Channel Awards in October 2011, the NetShelter CX facility is on-course to achieving a 20% increase in manufacturing output in Frome by the end of 2012.

Growth in Exports
Despite more buoyant figures in recent days the UK manufacturing sector at large continues to stutter, with combined factors including the Eurozone crisis and weak domestic demand currently holding the sector at 8% below its pre-recession peak. While the weak domestic market has caused a many to scale back, the Netshelter CX team have found growth through exporting.

“We haven’t experienced a decline in demand here at the Netshelter CX factory in Frome,” said David O’Coimin, Managing Director of Netshelter CX and Solutions Offer Manager for Schneider Electric. “Now especially as part of the APC by Schneider Electric family we’re seeing increased demand for our soundproofed server cabinets, all over the world. There is a temptation in times of economic hardship to batten down all hatches, including marketing. However we’ve learned that by engaging with markets outside the UK we have found that there are opportunities to stabilise and grow.”

Local Workforce
One of the factors behind the success of the NetShelter CX product has been the company’s ability to take skills from the local workforce, including carpentry and industrial design, and reapply them to the burgeoning ICT sector.

The acoustic & ventilated rack cabinets that are created in the Netshelter CX factory in Frome are unique in that they blend in with traditional office furniture. And because you can now put a quiet, portable, ventilated housing for noisy computer servers right in the open office, they have quickly become a integral piece of equipment for an ICT industry in transition due to disruptive technologies such as Cloud Computing and Virtualisation, and one with a growing environmental awareness.

“We’re a very nimble business capable of fast-paced change and nowhere is that more apparent than at the Netshelter CX factory here in Frome,” said Dave Galvin, Netshelter CX Factory Manager, Schneider Electric. “Here we have taken skills from the local workforce – things like traditional manufacturing, design, carpentry skills, and applied them to solving a different and unique challenge which is the soundproofing of computer server cabinets in the open office environment. The building of products for what is a growing need in the ICT sector is creating local jobs here in the South West and putting more traditional manufacturing skills to good use in a modern, high-tech savvy sector.”

About Schneider Electric in Frome
The APC by Schneider Electric ‘Netshelter CX’ has been developed and manufactured from its base on the Marston Trading Estate since 2004. The NetShelter CX is a sound-proofed & portable ‘Server Room in a Box’, which allows customers to deploy noisy IT equipment within the office environment. For more information visit: www.kellsystems.co.uk

  Frome Manufacturing Video