Gladiator Triumph in top award

When Adam Godfrey had to find a company to work with for his university gap year, he chose to go out on a limb and set up his own business. Now six years later, his company, Derby-based Gladiator Computers, is turning over £2.5M, employing nine full-time staff and has just scooped a national industry award.

The award comes from Computer Buyer, the largest computer magazine in the UK and will be announced in its December issue. Gladiator won the 'Recommended' award for its PC system. In terms of performance, their computer was twice as fast as its nearest rival and according to the magazine "the combination of great components and a superbly powerful graphics card is enough to take on even the most demanding of games."

Adam Godfrey, MD of Gladiator, said: "We are delighted to receive this accolade as it’s independent. We wouldn’t have won this if it hadn’t been for the support we have received from the MAS team. They provided funding for experts to come in from The Business Advice Team who showed us how to save and make more money."

MAS funded experts from the Derbyshire based Business Advice Team Ltd, a nationwide business consultancy, to go in and help Gladiator to improve its business processes.

Sam Stephens, Director of The Business Advice Team Ltd, commented: "Our team worked with Adam to come up with stretching goals and improvements that have helped Gladiator to boost their turnover and reduce production costs by £18,000. For example, we looked at their stock, particularly at what was moving quickly and which wasn’t. We then linked their software so that it could forecast stock better. They now hold 25% less stock, releasing cash for the business."

Another key improvement was the documenting of how a PC was built. By taking the time to write down all the key manufacturing processes, Gladiator realised that they were duplicating quality control procedures and were able to change their checking system from a series of tick sheets to one computer printout. 

Gladiator Computers manufacturer high performance PCs that are built specifically for applications that require a fast and powerful hardware system.