"Wij houden u op de hoogte"
Moba UK was founded on 17 February 1966 by Mr Gordon Higginson, the first UK Managing director, and Mr Job Mosterd as director and shareholder. It was Moba's first foreign subsidiary. David Jones joined Moba (UK) in 1999 and is the current General Manager of the company. He tells us more about the rich history, philosophy and goals of Moba UK.
Due to continuous growth, Moba needed to expand. Not only in the Netherlands at its headquarters but in order to be closer to our customers it was necessary to have subsidiaries worldwide. That all started with Moba UK in 1966. "Having a UK office means we are close and local to our customer base and we understand them well. The strength of our company is the long-standing and close relationship with many of our customers,” David explains. "Service and spare parts supply can be actioned very quickly, seven days a week, but equally important is a quick response to sales and follow up visits and requests."
The new location was based on a new highway link to the UK's network of major roads that enable quick service responses north, south and east. Shropshire is also an agricultural county with a high population of egg packing companies.
History
Moba UK was first located at a Second World War era Royal Air Force base in the Tern Hill area of Shropshire. Later, the company moved to Ketley, Telford, also in Shropshire. In 1980 a larger office was opened at this site by Mr Clifford Kent, who had been the first UK Moba2000 customer many years before. Telford was an ideal location for Moba UK, according to David: "The new location was based on a new highway link to the UK's network of major roads that enable quick service responses north, south and east. Shropshire is also an agricultural county with a high population of egg packing companies."
The year 2016 was a big one for Moba (UK) with the celebration of 50 years of continuous successful trading in the UK market. They greeted this milestone with new workwear, a new email logo to announce their long-term trading success and a small ceremony to unveil a new time clock at the front of their workshop building to emphasise this achievement.
Throughout the years, Moba UK has established itself as the market leader in the UK and Ireland in egg grading and egg packing machinery (98% of egg grader market share today). With the development of robotics and the changes to the labour market and cost lowering possibilities, the semi and full automation of packing centre operations have really taken off in the UK and Ireland.
Moba UK's service team work to high engineering and personal standards and their focus is making sure the customer's equipment service is carried out to the best of their abilities in a friendly, honest and supportive approach.
Teamwork
Currently, Moba UK employs 11 field service engineers, a service manager (Andy Reeves) and a service coordinator (Gary Taylor) who carry out all engineering planning and fieldwork. Occasionally, support from Dutch engineers is needed during complex equipment installations. The office has two shop employees (Margaret Burton and Becki Griffiths), one accounts executive (Sharon Price), one area sales manager (Marc Baxendale) and three administration employees (Amy Summers supporting service, Gemma Attwell supporting sales and Joy Jones in broad administration).
The service engineers are headed by two senior engineers (Graham Proctor and Paul Cooke). These experienced engineers are driving their knowledge to higher levels and supporting customers to exemplary standards. The service team is completed by enthusiastic and dedicated service colleagues Dave Rigby, Sam Mullinder, Paul Oswell, Eimutis Bartkevicius, Dan McKee, Seb Taylor, Pete James and the newest junior engineer, Edouard Bouchardiere. David is proud of his team: "Moba UK's service team works to high engineering and personal standards and their focus is making sure the customer's equipment service is carried out to the best of their abilities in a friendly, honest and supportive approach."
On an almost daily basis, we speak with our Dutch colleagues in sales support, on the helpdesk, in system engineering, spare parts, accounts and other departments when we require information and answers to drive our business forward.
Headquarters
The communication between Moba UK and the headquarters located in Barneveld is great. "This may be easier because of the relatively short distance; however, the mental understanding also helps. The Dutch have a sense of humor which is understood very well by the English, Irish, Welsh and Scots. On an almost daily basis, we speak with our Dutch colleagues in sales support, on the helpdesk, in system engineering, spare parts, accounts and other departments when we require information and answers to drive our business forward."
Moba UK also maintains close communication with the other Moba offices worldwide. "Because of the simplicity of language, we have also worked with the Moba USA office over many years, at times sending engineers both ways to help with installations (USA and UK). However, the closest ties we have developed over the last 18 years are with the Moba Spanish agent Alcantara. Our engineers have supported their market with engineering knowledge and support. More recently, the Spanish engineers reciprocated this support by sending engineers to England. This arrangement has been of great mutual benefit."
Our philosophy within our small but busy company is to work hard and socialise together as much as possible to build a team ethos and better understanding of each other's work and personal life to develop a better working relationship, which ultimately benefits our customers.
Mission
"Our philosophy within our small but busy company is to work hard and socialise together as much as possible to build a team ethos and better understanding of each other's work and personal life to develop a better working relationship, which ultimately benefits our customers."
According to David, the future looks bright for Moba UK. "Our goal is to maintain and strengthen our installed grader base, to invest more in farmpacker sales (which is ongoing) and our engineering team will continue to learn and enhance their expert knowledge on robotics and automation." A more recent challenge Moba UK has had to face is Brexit: "Having no border restrictions at the moment between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland makes travel and trade very easy. We don't want this to end or find that travel restrictions slow down our customer responses. We want to maintain the momentum. That is why we are looking to place training at the forefront of our strategy, strengthen our service engineering team with more service engineers and stay as close to our customers and the market as we possibly can. Our employees are important to this strategy and we value them highly, we take care of our employees because they will take care of our customers."