At PCS Instruments, we are passionate about tribology and helping our customers - whether it’s helping them get the most from our systems or solving a challenging problem; being close to our customers is key.
Back in episode 2 I hinted at an exciting development just around the corner – finally we are there. I am proud to announce that we will be opening a new office in Cambridge just a short hop from Boston, MA, USA. Why now? Why not! Despite market turbulence, there is an ongoing strong demand for R&D tribology testing.
You will see from our new US website which launched on the 2nd April, the feature interviews with our founders John and Clive, both shared that they were always watching for opportunities across the pond. Now, we have decided to take the plunge, putting our first office outside of the UK in New England. This new locations gives us good transport connections across the US, a time zone that supports close-working with our clients, plenty of flights to the UK, and there is even an Acton - although I admit if we had located there, it may have gotten confusing!
We have been supporting the USA with tribology equipment from our UK offices for many years and we have great links with our customers. However, shipping times are increasing, with parts and systems often getting stuck in transit. We also recognise that we aren’t in the USA as often as we would like to be, and we feel we can do more by being closer.
We have found an ideal location in Cambridge with sufficient space for us to have all our tribology instruments on-site to demonstrate and offer testing, plus room for training, storage of specimens for quicker US delivery, and a repair and upgrade facility for anything that needs to come back to us.
We will have a small team dedicated to supporting customers with any testing or demos, in-service questions, servicing, upgrades and maintenance with the additional support of our UK team all to hand. This will take some time to put in place fully, but we are moving quickly and expect to have instruments on site in the next month or so and we will have people in roles as fast as we can recruit them! Like our UK Acton office, we plan to recruit locally and support the local businesses - we have carefully selected Cambridge for all the benefits it brings in that regard. We will source services from local companies and look forward to being part of the Cambridge community.
Our US business will carry on our culture of engineering excellence and professionalism and we will use technology to connect across the Atlantic – we will extend our phone and IT systems to join the locations in order to provide one supportive service with a one-company approach from the outset.
Tribology will be our focus and we will continue our long-standing partnership with Compass Instruments for our HFRR and ABS fuels instruments – benefitting from their experience and technical support to these systems.
This is so much more than just a new office for us; it provides a platform to develop new relationships and continue close collaboration with existing academic partners and companies in the US. Many of our instruments have been designed with, or directly from, customer input and feedback. We hope to hear more from you about what is great and what could be better so we can make the improvements you would like to see and develop the next generation of tribology equipment – we are always open to new suggestions so please do get in touch.
We believe there are customers in the US who may have felt a UK-based company would not be as responsive as they needed them to be with time zone and distance challenges, and maybe not considered us in the past – with our new facility in place, we hope to change that and meet the needs of those potential new customers. PCS are here for the long term and will continue to invest in our business, our future, our people and our partners to be the best we can be.
