St Asaph based Qioptiq opens £3.7 million warehouse to support armed forces

North Wales optical and photonics business Qioptiq has opened a new £3.7 million warehouse in St Asaph that will support an £83 million contract with the Ministry of Defence.

The six-year contract saves the MoD £47 million and means Qioptiq will ensure vital night vision equipment is available to UK armed forces around the globe.

The company’s success came after it realised it needed to take a more collaborative approach to its work and gain outside expertise on reducing costs through a leaner supply chain.

It entered into a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with Cardiff Business School and KTP associate Thanos Goltos.

Thanos worked for Qioptiq under the supervision of business school academics. His expertise in inventory forecasting showed how the business could reduce its inventory by 25%.

Peter White, managing director of Qioptiq, said:

The KTP has produced outstanding results. Historically, we operated a complex supply chain, but Thanos’s expertise has developed a toolset we could use to support our integrated logistics supply operations.

For this opportunity we acknowledged we needed to take a more collaborative approach to external funders and expertise. The partnership has helped secure a major contract from the MoD to support equipment vital to the safety of our soldiers in frontline operations.

Qioptiq designs and manufactures photonics products for a range of markets including medicine, life science, defence, manufacturing and aerospace. It is part of the US corporation Excelitas Technologies, which employs more than 500 people in North Wales.

Thanos said:

It was a great opportunity for me to put my expertise to good use under supervision from two highly experienced academics. It’s been a tough, enjoyable journey, and the results have been well worth the effort.

The KTP was co-funded by the Welsh Government, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Innovate UK. The Welsh Government also invested in the new warehouse at St Asaph.