Viking Test Services: Much More than Test

Estimated reading time: 28 minutes

Matties: It sounds like they were pleased with 80, because I guess there have been smaller groups in the past. I'm not sure, it was my first time there as well, but it was nice to see you as a sponsor and being there for sure.

Kelly: I like doing it, and they were appreciative of us being there and supporting it. They would be appreciative of more people being there and supporting it, whether they're sponsoring it or just coming out to the event. I really do get tremendous value out of it and will definitely go again. Not just to the EIPC but hopefully other worldwide events as they come up as well.

Matties: Are there any other conferences you’re attending? I know that the India Printed Circuit Association has a big event, I believe in August. Isn't that like the hottest time of the year to have one?

Kelly: Yes, you're right, the Indian Printed Circuit Expo is in Delhi in the third week of August and our company will be there. We will have a stand, we will be exhibiting and it will be our first event there.

Matties: That'll be interesting to see how that works out, but it sounds like a smart move for you with the investment that you're making there. Back to your business, one more thought came to mind. We talked primarily about equipment sales, do you do any consumable sales?

Kelly: We do consumables and small tools for spindle repair, but we don't do much else in the way of consumables. I've always looked and had an idea to do material consumables, whether it be laminate, whether it be entry back-up material, exit materials, drill bits, but I don't want to go down that route. I need to leave that to the experts; there's people that are much better qualified at doing that than we are. We need to be a value-added company, and that's what I'm trying to get at when I say that we're a service company and we're more of a partner. We are adding something. Like I said, we're not just buying a machine, chucking 20–30% mark-up on it and selling it again, and that's what I’d be doing if we started selling laminate, dry film, or entry and exit, and that's not our business. We do give a true added value.

Matties: How does the North American market play into your business model?

Kelly: We can go to America. We've been to shows before. I want to start with Universal in America, and I'm talking to a couple of agent companies there right now. It's finding the right bond and it's finding the right company that's going to work with us and be able to give the added value of the service and support.

Matties: They have to adopt or be aligned with your business philosophies to make it work.

Kelly: I'm talking to two or three people at the moment. I need to focus a little bit more on that in truth. Because I know some of the equipment that we work with, like our exposure machines or our wet process lines, once I've got one or two dotted on the floor there, word is going to spread. These machines sell themselves. I'm not looking for a guy in a suit that's out selling, I don't need that. I need more of a service company that's going to look after the equipment for us.

Matties: Sounds like your plate's pretty full; how do you manage your day?

Kelly: I do have a lot going on, but I thrive on being busy.

Matties: Do you have enough support around you? Because when you spread it so thin, things start…

Kelly: Falling apart. No, as we've grown steadily, and our business has grown steadily over the years, we've taken on steady growth in the number of people that we're employing as well to keep up with that, but we do have quiet spots as well. This is the difficulty with the capital equipment sales business. There are peaks and troughs, and the troughs unfortunately are quite…

Matties: They can be deep sometimes.

Kelly: They're uncomfortable. We have a lot of mouths to feed here, the payroll is high, and we will go through some months with no machine sales. We've just got to accept that. I can't cut staff down, because overall I think we're about right. Sometimes we could run on a lot more, sometimes we could run with a lot less, but you can't just take on qualified people like that. If I look at it year by year, the business works well. I'm busy on a day-to-day basis, but I've got very good people to support me thankfully and that's why Viking works. We have got a tremendous bunch of people that work for us that don't just consider themselves ‘9:00 to 5:00’ people. We give service way beyond what's expected of us. That's not me, that's the engineers and the other staff that work for us. They will be answering calls and writing emails throughout the night into early hours of the morning, because that's what we need to do.

Matties: You're a global business, that's how it works.

Kelly: Yeah, but even to the UK companies, if there's a problem we'll be supporting them. The day is finished when the job's done. The day doesn't finish at five o'clock when it's time to clock out. It works the other way as well, where if we've got a quieter day and the weather's nice, we can go home early if we've got something to do or someone wants to go and see their kid at a pantomime or whatever. It does work both ways and that's why it works well.

Matties: What year did you take over the sole management of the company?

Kelly: In 2000, I would say.

Matties: So you've been running the company for 16 years or so.

Kelly: Well, I think it feels more like 30 actually.

Matties: That's because you put so much into one day! Tell me about the Viking Test Services name; are you going to drop the test services part?

Kelly: It's gradually moving away.

Matties: Because it seems like that's the smallest part of your business these days.

Kelly: It is. We were called Viking Test Services Limited, and we're now called Viking Test Limited. We've dropped test services from the logo, so if you look at the Viking logo now it's just the Viking, but yeah we're gradually re-branding to Viking.

Matties: Maybe we should just pull the Band-Aid and do it, because it sounds like you have so many other wonderful things going on that you don't want to confuse the mind of the other prospects.

Kelly: Yeah, just do it. You're absolutely right.

Matties: Jake, it's been great spending time with you today and learning about your business, it's been really revealing. Thank you so much; we appreciate this.

Kelly: Thank you.

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