Cutting-edge Adlington business revolutionising an industry during coronavirus lockdown

In 2016, Jamie Baxter had what his wife calls his 'lightbulb moment'. Browsing LinkedIn on a Sunday morning, he came across a newly-designed piece of equipment which would allow him and Phil Barnard, his business partner and best mate since the age of 16, to revolutionise the alloy wheel refurbishment market.
(From left) DA Techs' Jamie Baxter, Chorley MP and Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and DA Tech's Phil Barnard.(From left) DA Techs' Jamie Baxter, Chorley MP and Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and DA Tech's Phil Barnard.
(From left) DA Techs' Jamie Baxter, Chorley MP and Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and DA Tech's Phil Barnard.

"To put it basically, when a car wheel is black and silver, that silver bit isn't paint, it's machine-finished exposed alloy," explains Jamie, 39, Director of Diamond Alloy Technicians, an Adlington-based alloy wheel refurbishment specialist. "So, if you bump one of those on a curb, you can't just sand it out and put some paint on it, it's a trickier fix."

That fix requires a vast three-ton lathe, meaning that wheels had to be physically transported to an off-site location to be mended. But then, Jamie stumbled across a new 550kg lathe and a lightbulb lit up.

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"I was like, 'that's very clever'," says Jamie. "It was tricky - I don't have any hair but, if I did, it would've all fallen out - but we managed to get one in a van and build a custom-made mobile workshop so we could come on-site to do wheels. Finding a niche is quite tricky, but we found it and now that's our USP: we made diamond cutting mobile."

DA Techs' work in action.DA Techs' work in action.
DA Techs' work in action.

Growing quickly, DA Techs was able to offer a mobile repair service to car dealerships who were wasting valuable time sending wheels off for refurbishment. With business booming but with their mobile lathe unable to handle larger jobs, the company opened their Chorley workshop in 2017 with Chorley MP and Speaker of the House, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, doing the ribbon-cutting.

"We wanted the back-up of a bigger facility to do bigger business," says Jamie, with new software systems developed in conjunction with Made Smarter, an initiative which helps businesses embrace digital tools, seeing the company go from refurbishing 135 wheels per week to more than 200. Their improved performance also earned them a three-year national contract as the tier-one wheel provider for Manheim, the world's largest wholesale auto auctioneers.

"We cover Manheim's Leeds, Coventry, and Colchester branches and wanted to offer a semi-permanent solution at those locations," says Jamie. "We started working on wheel repair pods, which are converted 40-foot containers which we've made into purpose-built workshops which can be used on-site. It's state-of-the-art, properly cutting-edge. In the pod, two guys can do 100 wheels a week; we do 200 a week in the workshop and that takes about six people."

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Naturally impacted by the coronavirus like everyone else, Jamie says: "It's been a challenging time. We put money in the bank as we grew and we've been careful, but you can't legislate for a business being shut down for the best part of two months. You can't make plans when it's a moving picture, you're just wondering what the world will look like after it all.

The DA Techs team: (from left) Tony Hewitt, Jamie Baxter, Phil Barnard, Karen Boardman, Jane Coleman, and Peter Radcliffe.The DA Techs team: (from left) Tony Hewitt, Jamie Baxter, Phil Barnard, Karen Boardman, Jane Coleman, and Peter Radcliffe.
The DA Techs team: (from left) Tony Hewitt, Jamie Baxter, Phil Barnard, Karen Boardman, Jane Coleman, and Peter Radcliffe.

"But Chorley Council have been absolutely outstanding; I couldn't speak more highly of them," Jamie adds. "The furlough scheme has been brilliant, too."

If there's a business suited to adapting to post-Covid life, however, it's DA Techs. "I was told years ago that 20% of your time should be working on your business, not in it" says Jamie. "So, while we set off with a business plan, we've adjusted according to the market. Mine and my business partner's skill-sets are well matched and we've got some really good people who work for us.

"Myself and my business partner came out of well-paid jobs and surrendered a lot to make DA Techs happen," Jamie continues. "There's a degree of fear when you first start; my wife was seven months pregnant but if you're doing it, you're doing it and, before the coronavirus, we were well in our stride.

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"We started this as an idea on paper with the belief that we've got a really good market solution. Now you can start to see it shape into something interesting and we employ 17 people. That's so rewarding."