A North East company has sealed its biggest deal to date to help global sports car brand Bugatti work on its new EV supercar.
Seaham-based Smart Manufacturing Solutions Ltd (SMS Ltd) provides recruitment and quality services to automotive, aerospace and rail manufacturers, with clients including the likes of Gestamp, Marelli, Magna, Cummins Engines, Dyer Engineering and Katmex.
The company provides a managed service of team leaders and inspectors, who are integrated into companies to quality-check parts before they’re packed ready for distribution or sequenced onto line. Through its recruitment arm, SMS sources the very best in current and future talent, fully vetting them to ensure they’re placing the right people with the right positions.
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Now the firm has secured a contract to provide skilled engineers to Bugatti in Croatia and Italy.
The company – known for the Veryon, Chiron and Centodieci models, all of which are famously owned by footballer Cristiano Ronaldo – is launching an electric supercar and has contracted the services of SMS to fill a gap in the skills market which it requires to produce the vehicle.
The first cohort of electrical engineers have already been sent to Croatia, with a second cohort following as operations scale up in both Croatia and Italy.
Adam Smith, co-founder and director of the County Durham company, said: “This contract has come about through an existing relationship we have with an operations manager at Bugatti. Our senior management team supported him whilst he was in a previous role, and he sought out our team after the excellent service he received prior to joining Bugatti.
“We anticipate this will lead to other projects within Bugatti as there’s a real shortage of technical expertise within the electrical engineering field overseas, however that’s one of our specialities and we know we can meet demand from Bugatti.”
Based at Seaham Grange Industrial Estate, SMS started with just three people in November 2020 and now works with clients across the country. As well as 13 office staff and 10 offsite management employees, it has more than 100 quality inspectors working on a sub-contract basis within manufacturers across the region.
The firm was founded by Mr Smith with Craig Wood and Pete Williams during the pandemic, after becoming frustrated at the lack of support quality containment companies were offering.
Mr Wood said: “We fully understand our industry because we worked in it, we lived and breathed it for many many years, and this has really accelerated the growth of our business. From launching just two years ago, we’re now on track to achieve £3m-plus turnover and have secured contracts with some real big hitters, particularly within the automotive industry.
“This latest contract with Bugatti is certainly our biggest in terms of brand profiling and we hope will act as a springboard to us securing more contracts internationally.”
