Examination of Witnesses (Questions 8780
- 8799)
8780. Sir, Option 2 is that the proposed Arsenal
Way shaft be located to the west of Arsenal Way on another existing
car park, with any necessary additional provision having to be
promoted by the Promoters. Sir, if you go back to page 2 of the
exhibits and look at that aerial photograph again, our clients
are there, their next-door neighbours, AMP, are there, that road
there is the Arsenal Way and, sir, this area here is a very large
car park, I assume, servicing this area here. The idea we are
putting to the Committee is that perhaps the shaft could be located
a short distance from here to just here on the corner of this
car park without the need to obviously demolish any buildings
but in a very large car park which Mr Aukett can describe to you
when he gives evidence.
8781. Sir, Option 3, going back to page 52 of
the exhibits, "The proposed Arsenal Way shaft" (this
is if neither Option 1 or 2 is taken) "to be relocated within
the current limits, but further to the west so that Ferrotec's
business can continue." I refer in that option to a drawing
to which I shall take the Committee later. I will now introduce
Mr Aukett to give evidence about Ferrotec and what they do.
Mr Bryan Aukett, Sworn
Examined by Mr Lewis
8782. Mr Lewis: Firstly, Mr Aukett, could
you introduce yourself to the Committee?
(Mr Aukett) Yes, certainly. My name is Bryan
Aukett and I am the Finance Director of Ferrotec (UK) Limited.
I have held that position for some seven years and I am a Chartered
Accountant.
8783. Could you now explain to the Committee
who Ferrotec are and what they do?
(Mr Aukett) Yes. Ferrotec is a small to medium-sized
high-tech engineering company operating out of a factory warehouse
unit number 3 IO Centre, Royal Arsenal Estate, Woolwich. Page
2, I think, is the aerial photograph. I think it has already been
shown where we operate from. We own a leasehold interest in this
property. Our principal business is the design, manufacture, testing,
assembly and repair of specialist equipment used by customers
to manufacture products in the vacuum environment. Vacuum chambers
are specialised vessels that can maintain a suitable process environment
in which thin film, micro-electronics, optics and other materials
can be manufactured. Our main products include feedthroughs and
drivethroughs and these units enable the rotation and power to
be transmitted from outside the vacuum chamber to inside the vacuum
chamber, using a variety of highly specialised magnetic fluid
seals.
8784. Sir, we have put in as our first document
a brochure from the company. Mr Aukett, perhaps, you can just
show the Committee one or two of the items which are in that brochure
which are manufactured in the UK. You need not read out the full
description but just point to a couple of examples.
(Mr Aukett) In the brochure Making the Difference
the fluids that we use are on the left—ferrofluids. It is
a fluid that comprises magnetic particles which can either flow
like water or, when you apply an electrical current to them, you
can change the whole format of them and they can actually go solid
so it becomes a solid metal. We use these types of fluid as a
seal in the units that we use. The next thing is the rotary vacuum
feedthrough. The photograph here is not really a very good indication,
but we have got some photographs that actually show these units
in better form. The feedthroughs do not have power; you attach
a power unit to them—a motor or something like that; the
drivethroughs actually have an electric motor attached to them.
A product that we are developing at the moment and have just started
marketing is the electron beam evaporator, and we have just designed
one and it has just come into manufacture.
8785. It is up on the screen now.[6]
(Mr Aukett) Yes, okay. These are
just a few of the type of feedthroughs that we manufacture. Effectively,
they are just for the transmission of either rotary power or ordinary
power straight through to the vacuum chambers so that processes
can actually be undertaken within a vacuum chamber. They can be
very small units, as you can see at the bottom of the picture,
or they can actually be very large, weighing up to several tonnes.
Depending on their usage they either have a short life or they
can have a very long life. The units are made to very high tolerances
and they are assembled in a clean room. We produce both bespoke
and stock units and solutions. Most of our products are exported,
the main markets being Europe, the USA and the Far East.
8786. Could you just tell us what sort of industries
use these types of drivethroughs?
(Mr Aukett) Certainly. It is mainly high-tech
industries. The sort of things that they use them for is manufacturing
silicon chips, so you would get one feedthrough which actually
moves the platform with the chips on around—it rotates them—and
then you will have another feedthrough in the chamber that actually
allows either electron beams or other processes to be worked on
those chips. Other things that they use them for are grinding
high quality optical lenses and, basically, all sorts of high-tech
industries—the nuclear industry, optical industry and micro-electronics
industry use vacuum chambers for specialist processes. We provide
the ability for them to work on these materials within the vacuum
chambers.
8787. Sir, I think pages 4 and 5 of the exhibits
show closer photographs of the feedthroughs. These, presumably,
are the larger type.
(Mr Aukett) Yes. This would be quite a large
unit, probably weighing more than a tonne. Most of the manufacture
is done by local subcontractors and we test, assemble and then
pack and export the units out of Unit 3.[7]
8788. Can you give an indication to the Committee
of the success of the business, please?
(Mr Aukett) It has been a number of years in
development. As I say, I joined the company some eight years ago.
It has been in existence for about 15 years, and we have only,
for the last couple of years, become profitable. So, therefore,
there has been many, many years of research, development, investment
and hard work in bringing the company to the state it is in now.
We employ some 15 people and a large number of those live locally.
The rest, apart from myself, are within easy reach of Woolwich.
Most of the employees have been with the company for many years,
and because of their specialist skills they would be very difficult
to locate. On the occasions that we have had a change of staff,
we have had the utmost difficulty in recruiting the right sort
of engineer or member of staff to join us.
8789. Do you have a high staff turnover?
(Mr Aukett) No, we have a very low staff turnover,
and thank goodness because that would make our development, our
growth and progress quite difficult.
8790. If we can move on to the premises themselves—
8791. Kelvin Hopkins: You say you use
sub-contractors to do much of the manufacturing there, is that
local?
(Mr Aukett) Yes, it is mainly local.
8792. How many other people would that employ?
(Mr Aukett) Probably 30 or more, I would have
thought. We have just started using a Chinese company for manufacturing
where there are very long runs involved but most of our work is
bespoke work where we do not design a specific unit for a customer
and we have that built locally.
8793. Mr Lewis: When did you move to
the premises?
(Mr Aukett) We have three units in Battersea,
that is where the business started and we vacated those because
the area was not conducive to transport particularly. We vacated
those in October 2002. We have a 15-year lease at the IO Centre
of which there is currently 10 and a half years remaining. Our
current annual rent is approximately £55,000 and we are paying
service and maintenance charges of around £4,300 a year,
our lease benefits from the provisions of the Landlord and Tenants
Act.
8794. That means you can renew it at the end
of this time?
(Mr Aukett) That is right. That was a very
important factor for us. Unit 3 is ideally suited for us, being
the right size, there is room for growth, the cost, the set-up,
the image, location and particularly the assess ability of transport—we
get quite a few customers coming in through City Airport—and
also for staff. When we moved from Battersea—and I think
this is very relevant—we were well over a year trying to
find suitable premises, and what we found was there were very,
very few premises in the Greater London area that were ideally
suited to us. Number 3 we have found to be absolutely ideal.
8795. Why did it take you over a year to move
there?
(Mr Aukett) It was just finding the right location
because obviously for a small company it was a very big step to
take and we wanted just the right type of premises that we knew
we could grow into over the next 10 or 15 years or so.
8796. Connected to that, perhaps you can describe
the requirements that you need both internally and externally
for your premises?
(Mr Aukett) We determined that we needed a
warehouse space of around 6,000 square feet in which we could
carry out the manufacturing processes, assembly work, testing,
stockholding, quality control, environmental issues and clean
room facilities.
8797. Can you explain what clean room facilities
are?
(Mr Aukett) They are areas where basically
you have an air-conditioning unit that filters all the air going
into the room. You go through a trapdoor arrangement, and operatives
in there wear complete overalls so that all operations undertaken
in the clean room are protected from dust and are totally clean.
We find with a lot of the equipment we make, because of the high
tolerances and so on, they have to be cleaned and then assembled
in a totally dust-free quiet area, hence the need for a facility
to accommodate this. It is a room within a room.
8798. Perhaps we can go back to the bundle and
start with the photograph on page 7. Can you describe to the Committee
what we see on numbers 7, 8, 9 and 10?[8]
(Mr Aukett) This is a test unit
which is just outside of the clean room. We use that for testing
the operation of the smaller feedthroughs.
8799. Number 8?
(Mr Aukett) This is the clean room in which
there are various test items and places for assembly of the equipment.
There is a feedthrough which is being assembled, you can see it
under the plastic to the left there.
6 Committee Ref: A102, Ferrotec (UK) Limited-rotary
vacuum feedthroughs (GRCHLB-33105-003 and 004). Back
7
Committee Ref: A102, Ferrotec (UK) Limited-Unit 3 (GRCHLB-33105-006). Back
8
Committee Ref: A102, Ferrotec (UK) Limited-various Ferrotec processes
(GRCHLB-33105-007 to 009). Back
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