When Dunlop Slazenger closed its last UK sporting goods plant in 2001, two former employees - Ray Clark and Steve Cole - wanted to preserve a long tradition of British shuttlecock manufacture. Ray and Steve formed Echelon Sport in 2001, to capitalise on their 50+ years of combined financial and production expertise, while at the same time preserving key logistical elements - and skilled local craftsmen - of the former enterprise. With the help of regional government funding, Ray and Steve opened the doors of Echelon Sport, with the aim of assuming a world leading in position in technical plastics products.

Echelon Sport is small enough provide exceptional flexibility in response to customer demands. But at the same time - as you'd expect of the supplier to Dunlop Slazenger's Carlton brand - Echelon Sport has no fear of world-size orders. The company has made a significant investment in advanced injection-moulding tools by a Swiss toolmaker - as used to make medical and laboratory components requiring the utmost quality, consistency and precision.

Echelon Sport's fully automated assembly line allows production of up to four shuttlecocks every nine seconds. That's potentially well over 7.5million per year. Such a huge capacity is more than enough to supply the needs of even the most demanding client. It also means that Echelon, by virtue of its 'smart working' and high-tech investment, is fully competitive with any Far Eastern manufacturer. But by the same token, Echelon Sport has no problems fulfilling small orders and short runs. Thanks to the inherent flexibility of its manufacturing process, setting up a short production runs of an existing shuttlecock design takes just half an hour. Orders can be delivered in Europe within a week Little wonder it's Europe's Number One supplier of synthetic shuttlecocks.