Fractory grows in the UK and beyond
Fractory began life in Tartu, Estonia, back in 2017. It opened its Manchester offices two years later, in 2019.
The Estonian startup has automated manufacturing procurement, connecting engineering and manufacturing companies. By simply uploading design files to the Fractory platform, metal parts can be priced and ordered instantly, with Fractory handling every step, including quality and timing. Last month The Financial Times ranked Fractory as the 32nd fastest-growing company in Europe.
UK growth
Fractory grows fast across Northern Europe and across the UK where it operates out of Manchester, with a team of 20 British engineers overseeing large projects, quality control and logistics for the many businesses who use Fractory for their manufacturing procurement needs. .
“Our success is in no small part thanks to our Manchester base,” says Martin Vares, co-founder and CEO of Fractory. “It’s a great city for manufacturing and entrepreneurship, ideal for a growing business in our sector. The North, as it’s thought of in the UK, is actually a central location, which has been a good thing for us. And while it is still very much the traditional industrial heartlands of the country, it is also an area where new businesses are being established, where new technologies are understood and adopted.”
Martin, who is an industry advisory board member at Manchester Metropolitan University, was shortlisted for last year’s Young Manufacturer of the Year at the MX Awards. He was also named in The Manufacturer Top 100 Change Makers, recognised in four categories: digital transformer, innovator, inspiring leader and young pioneer.
“In some ways – as a cloud manufacturing business or an on-demand manufacturing business – we could be anywhere. But Manchester has been great for us. The engineering talent pool has been invaluable,” adds Martin.
Fractory has 6,500 customers across its entire European operation. 4,000 of those are active, which is to say they do business with Fractory on a regular basis. To consider just the UK, Fractory has 4,000 customers, with 2,500 of those considered active.
Global growth
Fractory operates from Tartu and Tallinn in Estonia, Turku in Finland, and Manchester in the UK. But it is also operating more globally, specifically in working with international supply partners, which is something the company has to offer in order to provide the fullest service. Some customers want price. Some want convenience. Some want local supply. And Fractory’s point is not to be political but to provide customers with whatever they want or require. Some customers need lower prices and their sales cycle is such that longer lead times, which sometimes come with Asian supply, works for them. So, Fractory offers it all and is constantly working on widening the supply base in Asia as well as in Europe to offer maximum flexibility so that Fractory can be a place for all and everything, in keeping with ongoing expansion plans.
Future growth
By connecting the different players in the fragmented manufacturing ecosystem and helping its suppliers and customers through the issues the industry currently faces - inflationary pressures, labour shortages, supply chain disruptions and the imbalances between supply and demand – Fractory is becoming increasingly important to companies that tap into its service. And as it makes more efficient use of available machinery - filling the production gaps by distributing jobs according to manufacturer availability, lead time, expertise and capabilities – it brings sustainable improvements to an industry that is often inefficient.
Manufacturing at scale
Fractory customers increasingly understand the different ways they can use Fractory: for prototyping, for series manufacturing and for large-scale project managed jobs.
Demand increases across all three areas, but the biggest growth is in the larger projects. As ever, Fractory is perfect for prototyping and works to get unit price down on even small, single orders. But really, because of the company’s capacity and wide selection of supply partners, it’s across the larger orders that customers enjoy the most benefits. Where a project is sizable or tricky, customers find that Fractory is able to deliver short lead times, with serious quality and supply chain security. That all the manufacturing methods customers might require for a complex piece of work can be accessed from a single source is also appealing because it simplifies their workflows and lets them focus on their core business.