Founded in 1919 Altro is a third generation family owned UK business specialising in the manufacture and supply of commercial flooring and wall cladding products. The headquarters and the manufacturing facility for safety flooring materials is located in Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire. Altro also have two other sites in the UK; Altro Walls in Lowestoft, Altro Resins in Dorset as well as Design Studios in London and Manchester.
Customer Service Excellence
Altro’s ‘Voice of the Customer’ programme which has been running since 2008, acts as a conduit for highlighting global customer ‘insights’ from all aspects of the supply chain and these are shared right across the company. These insights are gathered from day to day customer interaction and also from the numerous visits to Altro’s manufacturing facilities by their customers from all over the world. Such feedback, not only allows realistic improvements to be made to product and service offerings, but it also enhances relationships with customers whilst integrating them into the business and into the decision making process.
Innovation and R&D
Altro has always been an innovative company, inventing both Safety Flooring and Wall Cladding. To ensure they continue to develop product ranges in a consistent and structured manner, they have a detailed development plan covering the next five years and a long term development plan stretching beyond this. Many of these projects are driven by customer requirements highlighted through their ‘Voice of the Customer’ programme and through advanced interview and observation techniques. Other projects are driven largely by a desire to continuously improve the Sustainability of the business and the need to respond to changing legislation in their global markets. Altro works in partnership with a number of stakeholders on these developments. These include suppliers and industry partners and a range of University and Research organisations enabling access to the most recent developments. At various stages of the process, they involve customers, seeking their feedback on the direction of their current projects.
Lean Manufacturing
Lean tools and techniques have enabled Altro to reduce costs and improve productivity. Visual management and workplace organisation are all excellent. On the site tour you will see first hand how these tools and techniques have been used.
Creating a Great Place to Work
Altro believes that its people are its major differentiator to the competition and their Core Values of “Valuing our Customer, Valuing Each Other” are lived throughout the organisation. Testament to their culture of openness, honesty, respect and support for each other is their achievement of the Sunday Times ‘Top 100 Best Companies to Work For’ award 9 times. On the visit, you will hear how the Company has created and maintains the core values of loyalty, teamwork and employee engagement