Celebrating 100 years of Yamato Scale
When Chun Ha, the managing director of Yamato Scale UK, appeared on our zoom call, the screen was immediately filled by one of those rare entities: a business leader with optimism. Not only that, as our discussion continued it became clear he had a vision and carefully crafted strategy that would help him achieve his ambitions for the UK arm of the company.
Mr Ha’s enthusiasm for the business that he joined in 2015, moving swiftly up the ranks to the UK top job, was contagious. Here was a man you could believe in. His knowledge of Yamato’s history, as the company celebrates its centenary year, had the kind of depth you’d imagine from someone who had lived and breathed every step along the way.
Prior to his promotion to UK managing director he served as general manager for global sales and more recently as executive officer and deputy executive general manager of Yamato’s automatic weighing division.
Yamato Scale was founded in 1920 by the Japanese industrialist Seibei Kawanishi, who had already established the Kawanishi Machine Works, Nippon Keori Co and Sanyo Electric Railway Co.
Mr Ha said: “In the decades that followed, we became known for making heavy-duty weighing technology across many industries including steel, automobile, and highway construction.”
Mr Ha takes particular inspiration from the 1970s when Yamato Scale focused its efforts on serving the food processing industry.
He said: “This was the first time that a company making industrial-scale weighing machinery had transferred such specialist and highly technical skills into the development of automatic weighing machines for the food manufacturing sector.
“We have built on this ever since, to the extent that our automatic weighing division is now the most important part of our business. The fact that we have made the development of increasingly accurate weighing technology the core of our business, is what makes us stand out from our competitors.”
Mr Ha says that the development of Yamato’s multi-head scales was revolutionary to the food processing sector, where supermarkets were demanding increased speed and productivity without compromising on accuracy. Indeed, Yamato’s determination to invest in R&D and to continually improve its weighing technology in line with uncompromising customer demand helped the company go from strength to strength, with offices opening all over the world including in Europe, India, Thailand, China and America as well as the UK.
Mr Ha explains that another point of difference is Yamato’s focus on helping its customers ensure accuracy and compliance to rigorous industry standards across the entirety of their food processing lines.
He is referring to Yamato’s industry leading product inspection equipment.
Mr Ha said: “Our product inspection machines are some of the most advanced in the industry. This is vitally important for ensuring product safety, avoiding downtime and wastage, and reducing manufacturing costs.”
In addition to growing some of Yamato’s more traditional specialisms, Mr Ha is also intent on helping customers with project management advice. Yamato has a team of consultants led by Adam Hazeldine who help customers identify the best equipment, install it correctly, provide training and other ongoing support services.
Mr Ha said: “Our level of expertise and our dedication to providing a range of added-value services to our customers makes us unique. I am determined to grow this element of our business as we could offer so much more to our customers that would help them achieve their goals.
“My ambition for the next 10 years is to double the size of the business in the UK and I am fully confident that we can do that by ensuring that we understand the needs of customers, have intricate knowledge of any changes to food safety regulations and that we are agile and able to respond very quickly to their needs.”