Simon Roberts - Driving into New Markets

In 2019, Simon Roberts joined Integration Technology as Managing Director. Integration Technology has been very much part of the development of inkjet with their pioneering UV curing technology being a key component technology enabling the rise of inkjet printing. Based near Oxford in the UK, since 2015 Integration Technology has been part of the IST METZ Group. This enables Integration Technology and IST together to offer the world’s largest portfolio of UV curing solutions.  Integration Technology serves the industry’s OEMs, integrators and system developers supported by offices in Europe, USA, South America and Asia. In this interview we talk to Simon about his experience, his view of the market and what the future holds for Integration Technology, inkjet, UV curing and LED. 

Simon, tell us a little about your background and experience and how you came to get involved with inkjet? 

2019 was a big year for me as this marked the year I joined the UV curing industry. I have travelled extensively to our global sales operations and I have said yes to most visits and have attended a lot of trade shows and conferences. It has been very educational and the amount of networking I have done means that people are beginning to know my name. It was also great for me to make a presentation at IJC in Dusseldorf. On a personal level, it has also been a significant year for me as I got engaged in California in December and bought a new house in the UK with my now fiancée.

What did you do prior to joining Integration Technology as MD?

I studied mechanical engineering at Birmingham University and after I graduated I spent some time as a Design Engineer at Westland Helicopters. In 2000 I joined the automotive industry with Prodrive, an automotive consultancy most famous for developing the Subaru World Rally Cars and the Ford Mondeo Touring Cars. I worked as a Chief Engineer in the transmission and driveline sector, specialising in 4-wheel drive systems. 

In 2004 I moved to Romax Technology in Nottingham. As a technical expert user of their CAE analysis software, I worked as a technical sales engineer providing product demonstrations to customers and travelling with the sales force providing technical support. Then one of their sales guys in the USA left and I took on the territory and for a week every month for 5 years I was in the USA. It was at this time that I began my transition from technical roles into commercial roles in the sales of engineered products and technical engineering consultancy services.

Between 2007 and 2012 I was Chief Engineer and latterly Managing Director for a company in the UK that was involved in the development and commercialisation of transmission products. I travelled to China over 50 times during this period searching for domestic Chinese vehicle OEM customers and developing and incorporating a 50:50 manufacturing JV.

Between 2012 and 2017 I spent time at Ricardo, another global engineering consultancy, as Head of Product Group and Business Development, and at Tata Motors UK as Head of Business Development and Strategy.

In 2017 I dedicated my time to my own sales and business development consultancy, ‘Torquepath’, and was introduced to the CEO of Integration Technology, Adrian Lockwood, in 2018, and the rest, as they say, is history.

So your background in automotive engineering and management hold value for Integration Technology?

Yes, my business development experience was appealing to Integration Technology, as was the fact that I was not from the inkjet or printing industry. Whilst inkjet expertise is, of course, important, in a leadership role which has the responsibility of growth into new industrial markets my ability to build new business is as important for the diversification of our business in the medium to long term. 

So, is there a danger some inkjet businesses find it hard to push themselves out of their immediate markets? 

Yes of course, but that is not unique to Integration Technology. It’s normal for companies who do well in one area to not feel equally confident and able to match that success in a new market. They become accustomed to one market and don’t like moving out of their comfort zone. So, for me coming from outside inkjet, it’s much easier as I have a different perspective and drive.  

Our Sales Personnel are excellent at what they do, but it made sense to bring someone in like me to help look for customers outside our immediate sector. Of course, it helps that I do have an engineering background as well as international business development experience.  

Our parent company, IST, has achieved excellent revenue growth over the last 5-years in industrial applications such as converting, adhesives and bonding, wood coatings and flat panel display manufacturing. It is this success that we are aiming to replicate at Integration Technology and provide hybrid arc lamp / LED curing solutions alongside IST products. This gives us a unique market offering as a single-source solution provider. 

So, what is your view in summary of Integration Technology and Inkjet, does it have some unique challenges? 

I have learned through experience that the challenges are the same with SME businesses in all sectors that are looking to grow and diversify, whilst supporting global sales operations with technical training in new products and services. I recently talked with a previous colleague of mine who is an interim CEO. He was the CEO of a gearbox manufacturer and at the same time the CEO of a dental implant clinic. He found that the challenges in both businesses were generally the same and advised me that you need to start by asking the right questions.  

What kind of questions? 

We need to ask, is the product offering for the market correct? It is important that your product portfolio has synergy with the right markets. 

Integration Technology’s products are of high quality and high precision. They are very reliable and also provide industry-leading uniformity of UVA intensity and dose across curing head lengths in excess of 2.5 metres. Our current product portfolio is positioned at the high end. It is clear that products need to be tailored and positioned differently for more commoditised markets in China than they are for high end applications where performance, reliability, and immediate in-field maintenance and service support is more important than cost. Our products are very well suited to these high-end printing and industrial applications. 

What sectors do you see as relevant?

In my mind, we need to find industrial applications in new markets that are scalable into the sales of hundreds and potentially thousands of units per year. We see great potential in portable hand-held UV LED curing systems for fillers, coatings and varnishes. 

Is this a sales or a business development challenge in your view? 

Sales and business development are quite different in my view, although many people categorise them as the same thing. In my experience, salespeople and business development people are quite different and require different skill sets. Salespeople need in-depth technical product knowledge to instil confidence in our customers and our sales team are effective at dealing with our core product market and our technicians know our product very well. Business Development people are hunters. They need to open the doors and provide a funnel of leads and opportunities for the Salespeople to follow up diligently.

How will you fix this?  

I will be heading up and focussing on new business development. The operation here in the UK is excellent and running very smoothly. This gives me the confidence that I can concentrate and focus on global business development leadership, particularly in the USA. It is harder for me to do this in Asia, as it is more difficult for me to converse with our customers. That is why it is vital that we have well-trained Salespeople in these territories.

What markets are you looking at breaking into?

The depth and diversity of applications for UV curing are so broad that it is difficult to know which horse to back.

Of course, having a plan is important. I’m experienced in writing very targeted bespoke business development plans for a smaller group of target customers. Now we are talking about 1000’s of potential customers and I’ve implemented a marketing strategy which is two sides of the same coin. One side of the strategy is focussed on ‘How we find customers’, via extensive market and application research, particularly in the rise of industrial inkjet applications. The other the side of the strategy is focussed on ‘How customers find us’. Optimised marketing and website development to make the phone ring more often.

Are you seeing Trends and Change in Automotive? 

It was interesting when I was at LabelExpo last year in Brussels.  I noticed a level of disappointment that there hasn’t been the rapid adoption of UV LED that was initially anticipated in the narrow web market. There is a similarity with the automotive sector as often technology is developed way before it is adopted into the mainstream. Take the ‘flappy paddle gearbox’. These originated in motorsport and enabled the driver to change gear without a clutch. These transmissions have been available in mainstream production for around 15 years now. However, the technology has been available for over 30 years, but it simply wasn’t commercially viable to install these transmissions in volume vehicle production. They were simply excluded on the cost of introduction to the market. The customer would not accept the price premium. 

My point is that the adoption of technology is not just about the technology as there needs to be a whole life cycle cost analysis. In the automotive market, another great example is the hybrid and electric car revolution. The only reason the big car companies are looking at developing electric vehicles is because they are being legislated to do so. Automotive manufacturers are being forced to address the emissions and green credentials of their entire vehicle fleets.  The same may well be true for the UV curing industry. OEM manufacturers and end-users may well be forced to use LED solutions because their customers expect more environmentally friendly production processes or legislation demands it.

 Is the print sector compared to automotive?

 The print and automotive sector are quite similar. In both industries, the pace of change is generally commercially driven, not technically driven. Both have cultures that are in the majority resistant to change and this tends to shape the speed of innovation. There is plenty to be done but Integration Technology is in a great position going forward. It is sure to be a very challenging but exciting few years.

Contact Simon.