Established in 1990 and now operating from Cookstown in Co.Tyrone, BA Components has grown steadily to become a major manufacturer of vinyl wrapped doors and accessories in the UK and Irish furniture components industry.

We are the largest door producer supplying small, medium and large manufacturers with standard and non-standard size doors and no minimum order quantity. In addition we have the largest range of matching accessories available.

BA is market leader, and we regularly use feedback from our customers to help in our decisions on new products and colours. The range is marketed under the brand name "Bella by BA", and currently consists of 22 designs offered in 28 colours including 7 high gloss colours. Any colour is available with any design.

Regular investment in leading edge software has resulted in a fully linked system from order entry through to production planning, production processing and despatch. The order system is updated at every stage of production which means we can communicate accurate order status information on request. Once orders are entered an Order Acknowledgement is automatically faxed or emailed to each customer which contains full details, prices and despatch dates. The order is then optimised by the planning software into colour batches which ensures the most efficient use of each board at the routing stage.

Real-time information on your order is available either by contacting our sales office or can be accessed directly on the web site (registered customers only).

The entire complex and store is temperature controlled 24 hours a day every day of the year by a burner and boiler system fuelled using the company's wood waste. Control of the humidity in our stores and factory ensures consistency in the quality of our raw materials brought into production. This is key to the efficiency in production and therefore the quality of the end products.

From our new purpose built factory, a £3.5m investment in state of the art CNC and robotic processing machinery allows us to produce consistently high quality products. This project was in association with 5 European machinery manufacturers and was based on our own concept designs. There are now 5 new twin head CNC routers working on the first stage of the process, creating the designs on colour matched board. Advanced internal software uses an optimising system to plan production efficiently based on colour batches, and this information is sent directly to the hard drive of each router.

We now have three pressing lines, two of which are fully automated robotic gluing, pressing and trimming lines which are the most advanced of their kind in the world. The robotic gluing ensures a consistent coating using a water based glue. The glue is initially dried in-line by stacking the batch of doors in purpose-built multi-level ovens (the heat for which is supplied from the factory wood waste burner and recycling system). All this adds to the end product quality and has obvious advantages over traditional hand spraying methods.

The company software again calculates lay-up for the pressing process and this information is sent directly to screens for the press controllers. This ensures correct batches to be pressed and the correct spacing between pieces. All this adds to the end product quality and has advantages over traditional operator manual input.

Advanced in-line cleaning machinery at pre-gluing and post pressing stages maintain a consistent high level of product at all stages of processing and also prior to final inspection, drilling and packing. Robotic trimming of door batches from the press adds an extra consistency in the final production process and a distinct advantage over traditional manual trimming. These robots can trim one piece every 6 seconds.

Final inspection is a crucial part of the process to ensure that all products leave our factory in first class condition. This is a manual inspection by trained operatives. As stated earlier, we are justly proud of our Company and our consistency in product quality, and to this end we now mark all our doors on the label with our Registered Quality Symbol.

Packing for despatch is important and every effort is made to ensure that customers receive their goods in the same condition as they leave our factory. Sturdy pallet boxes are used with smaller consignments being handled by courier service where applicable. We deliver daily to the UK and Ireland. As goods are despatched we send the details of the consignment number by fax or email so you can track your delivery if required.

An investment of £500k over the last 2 years has completely re-designed and upgraded our promotional material. New 68 page kitchen and bedroom brochures are available now along with new colour swatches, new sales presenters, new picture gallery posters and a new CD with product information and an animated presentation for use in showrooms and exhibitions. No other door supplier offers more support and help in the selling process to dealers and trade customers.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Over the years the accomplishments made by BA Components have been recognised by us being awarded many local and national business awards. Our desire to improve was recognised recently when we won the prestigious Belfast Telegraph UK National Business Award for "Best Use of ICT to Improve and Grow the Business", presented by Rt. Hon. Sir Kenneth Clarke at a gala dinner. Our continuing commitment to the environment was recognised in the same event when we were "Highly Commended" in this category for such initiatives as recycling, noise pollution, waste reduction and disposal and elimination of solvent based chemicals and glues in the production process.

AND FINALLY

At BA Components we regard our relationship with the community in Cookstown very highly. We get involved in local charitable initiatives and community events. This year we are again sponsoring a cross community football team, which attracts quite a lot of attention locally. We also sponsor our own BA football team made up of our own employees. This team out played everyone's expectations by recently winning the Street League Trophy. We also help to support and race a World Rally Car (WRC) both in national rallies and in charity fund-raising competitions and events throughout the year. Through this initiative we generate a strong level of local support and sponsorship, as well as community spirit and a keen interest in BA within the local employment market.

We can now look forward and assure you that our larger product range and all these improvements will allow us to continue to offer a world class service to all our customers. With even more new improvements to systems planned, and by utilising leading edge technology in all aspects of our business, BA has fixed itself firmly as a market leader in the vinyl wrapped market sector in the UK and Ireland for the years to come.