Ahead of VAKI Scotland’s fifth anniversary, the company’s UK and Ireland area manager Gareth Hammond commented that his proudest moment so far has been becoming a finalist in last year’s Aquaculture Awards UK.
”I submitted our entry for our VAKI SmartFlow system in to the technical innovation category,” he said, adding that another standout accomplishment for VAKI Scotland is establishing the service center in Dingwall.
”The effort that was put in to getting this side of the business up and running was a great accomplishment,” he said.
”We now have a workshop in Dingwall along with a dedicated team that provide our customers with onsite service, training, installations and repairs. This has ensured that we are able to give our customers the best support that we have to offer when it comes to using our products. Off the back of this we have been able to successfully grow our business here in Scotland and within the rest of the UK and Ireland.”
He commented that VAKI’s successes have been driven by strong products and services, dedicated employees and decades of experience in the sector.
”We have been in the industry for 34 years and in that time we have always worked closely and in collaboration with our customers in developing our products especially our counter range. At Vaki we are committed to continuous innovation and development and will continue to expand our products to offer more features and benefits for our customers.”
Alongside the successes, there have also been plenty of challenges – not least this year with Covid-19.
”This has presented us with a whole new challenge, particularly when it came to onsite installations and service and the restrictions imposed. So we produced a series of service videos which were step by step guides that our customers could follow and well received by everyone.”
Innovation
”There are some new products in development that I am very excited about and I believe our customers will be as well. But all I can say is watch this space. In the last twelve months our latest product which is our VAKI Smart grader has continued to do well with sales in Norway, Chile and here in Scotland,” he said, adding that the Smart Grader delivers accurate fish grading while minimising the impact on fish as they pass through the outlets.
There had been plans to celebrate VAKI Scotland’s five years in business with a reception at this year’s Aviemore show, but like so much, that has been cancelled.
”we will hopefully do something at Aviemore next year,” he said.
”I would like to make a special mention for David Jarron whose vision it was to establish Vaki Scotland Ltd and to thank him for giving me the opportunity to run this fantastic business in his stead. I would also like to thank my service team for all their hard work and commitment over the years and here’s to five more.”
