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where reliability and performance are critical .
“ There is a great deal of reputational value in the KATO brand built over many years , however use of this brand by Advanex had declined over recent years , so we have recently partnered with a digital marketing company – Forge – who have created a structured campaign along with a specific product website to help us regain ownership of , and reassociate the KATO brand with Advanex .
“ One of our more niche success stories would be Advanex ’ s involvement in manufacturing the sliding clips featured on floppy disks ,” Neil continues . “ During the height of disk production , the majority of the world ’ s supply of these clips was manufactured in our factory in Southwell , Nottinghamshire . When you consider how many were produced across the planet at a time , it was great business for a number of years .”
In 2018 , Advanex Europe opened a new facility northeast of Prague . This Czech Republic base was the third piece of the puzzle , sitting alongside its two sites in the UK , and was purposefully selected with a great geographical purpose .
“ We chose the Czech Republic based on its superb central European location . Increasingly so , this region has been enormously popular among the pharma , medical , and automotive customers that we serve . Now the uncertainty around Covid is subsiding , the facility is growing quickly , already producing high volume springs and pressings for medical devices and automotive customers . Now , we often develop product in our Bilborough facility before transferring the volume production to either Prague or another Advanex facility .
… we are seeing strong growth within contracts that we already hold , alongside a wave of new opportunities
“ Coordinated by our headquarters in Japan , the global business is now focused on the worldwide supply of precision metallic components to high integrity markets such as aerospace , medical devices , automotive , and consumer electronics .
“ We are also starting to see potential for Advanex in electric vehicles , silicon wafer manufacture , and power generation . On the KATO Advanex insert side of the business , aerospace companies like Rolls Royce , Pratt & Whitney , Airbus , Boeing , and Safran are really driving strong growth , and this is set to continue . We serve the global demands of these type of customers and others through our ever-growing international network of distribution partners .
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