Production of all Kerstar industrial vacuum cleaners, including Type H and ATEX rated models, has now moved to Filtermist International Limited’s HQ in Telford in a bid to deliver increased efficiencies to customers.
Filtermist acquired Northampton based Kerstar in 2019 and, following the implementation of a Lean Manufacturing project in July 2020, the decision was taken to move production to Telford.
Filtermist CEO, James Stansfield, explains why; “We originally instigated the Lean project at Kerstar to help us identify potential improvements in how the team in Northampton was working. With the help of MCPG Management Consultants it quickly became clear that being located across multiple sites was causing various challenges for production.
“Consolidating all of our manufacturing operations in one location allows us to have better sight of production at all times. It also enables us to share expertise and resources amongst our teams and gives us better control on the quality of all our products.
“We are fortunate in that we have two sites at Telford – one for manufacturing, and one for assembly and dispatch. The majority of Kerstar production is assembly and testing so we re-designed the floorspace to accommodate a new line specifically for Kerstar and invested in new high-level racking to ensure we have enough storage for Kerstar components.
“With the help of MCPG, we devised a comprehensive 14-month project plan to ensure the move went as smoothly as possible. Work began in October 2020 with the intention of ramping up to full production in Telford by December 2021. The plan included documenting all procedures to support knowledge transfer from the existing Kerstar team to new team members and investing in additional personnel - including a dedicated Product Manager to ensure the brand continues to grow.”
Kerstar industrial vacuum cleaners are sold through a network of approved UK resellers and distributors throughout Europe, India, Singapore and Australasia. “Having successfully completed the transition form Northampton to Telford, we are now in a position to really start building our presence in new markets,” comments Product Manager, Ben Kimpton. “We will be exhibiting at the Interclean show in Amsterdam in May and are looking forward to finally being able to meet our existing European distributors face to face as the pandemic has so far prevented us from being able to do this.”
In addition to the move, Kerstar has recently undergone a brand refresh and launched a new website to reflect its position as one of the UK’s leading industrial vacuum cleaner manufacturers.
Call the Filtermist team on 01952 290500 to discuss your industrial vacuum cleaning requirements.