After 17 years, Nylon Fasteners founder Marcus Birkmyre is stepping back and handing over the reins to the company to Sales Director Jake Phillips. Torque Magazine speaks with the duo about the past, present and future of this growing nylon and plastic fastener specialist, about the secrets of its success and how being nimble has given it a competitive edge.
Nylon Fasteners (Nyfast) has been carving out an ever-larger share of the plastic and nylon fastener market since 2009 and serving a wide range of customers ranging from smaller distributors and retailers to the big players.
High stock levels with regular deliveries from trusted factories have been among the cornerstones of the business. As time has gone on, investments in technology - like online 3D animations to help explain product specifics - have also played their part in helping win customers. But it's something supremely simple that has been a bedrock of the business: people.
"We are a small team and we are really happy to be working with a vast range of different customers," explains Nyfast Founder Marcus Birkmyre. "We build up these relationships and people know they can rely on us for nylon and plastic fasteners.
"We're here to provide a reliable service and a good price. People can call up and have a friendly knowledgeable person on the other end of the phone who isn't just relying on a part number. We like to talk to people about their projects because the more we know, the better we can help."
Nyfast is firmly fixed on its niche, Marcus explains: "Fasteners as a whole is obviously very metal dominated but we're very happy to be the specialist for plastic fasteners in the UK and globally.
"Many fastener distributors across the UK focus heavily on metal fasteners, however they do have a small call for plastic fasteners. This is where we step in. We can heavily support those fastener distributors with competitive pricing due to our established relationships with key manufacturing partners. A combination of low overheads, careful market research and well thought out material purchasing ensures that we're always offering every customer the correct pricing band relative to their market position".
Jake Phillips takes the reins
Nyfast's beginnings were humble, with founder Marcus Birkmyre starting the business out of his house. 17 years later, the business is serving worldwide customers from its dedicated unit in Basingstoke.
"We're reaching a lot of people across a vast range of industries and sectors. Our reach in global plastics is extensive and moves in line with the growth of our business, and it continues to build exponentially. I started as a one-man band dealing with just people in England and now we have customers in Finland, Australia, China, America... you name it."
With the firm flying high, its founder Marcus is retiring as of Q2 2026, with the daily running of the business officially being handed over to Sales Director Jake Phillips, who is tasked with continuing to sail the ship into a new era. The moment has been prepared for: Jake joined in 2017 and became a Director of Nyfast back in 2022 (nearly four years to the day of Torque Magazine's visit).
Jake Phillips explains: "We've been working towards this for a while now. Marcus will be here a few hours a week and will be on hand when we need him, but I'll be leading the business and making the day-to-day financial and strategic decisions."
The new era structure has also seen other changes, Jake adds: "Connor Hurding has been officially promoted to Head of Business and Operations, who has been working as number two to me for a while."
While there is a change of command, Nyfast is planning to continue focusing on its strengths, including consistent and reliable supplies: "Fasteners are only a small part of most projects, but purchasers need to show they are buying correctly and price is important.
"We're shipping weekly out of our key factories. But then if someone needs some- thing we don't have in stock, we can fly them out of China to here in two days. If we can help someone out of trouble then we're happy," says Marcus. "We've spent a lot time market researching, looking at products and pricing. It keeps us really competitive."
The firm is highly visible online with the major search engines through "skill and a bit of luck" so that the Nyfast name is seen far and wide internationally-even coming up first in online searches in far flung locations like South Africa, we're told.
Snap rivets & specials
"Snap Rivets have proved to be an important product line to Nyfast," Marcus explains. "It's a fantastic product, they can be used in an array of industries and applications, they don't require tools to apply and once fastened sit flush, which is favourable to many different applications. Lighting, electronics and POS just to name a few. We know from extensive market research how competitive we are, whether that's an MOQ order or bulk discounts. We've been known to get many customers out of sticky situations not only on price but large supply in a short space of time - and these customers have never looked back."
Custom product and specials are part of the Nyfast offering too, with most of its suppliers able to tool to requirement - customers are urged to come forward and chat about their needs with the firm.
Nyfast's recent investment into 3D product animations online have been developed to help guide customers, Jake says: "You can be on the phone to a customer and when you're trying to explain a particular product you can send a link to our website and they get a little video they can view and show their customers or engineers.
"We've got the knowledge and the platform to offer customers a solution to that project but also to help with their own understanding."
Nyfast has seen customers turn up at the door with a challenge to solve, with Jake and the team coming up with solutions on the spot. That speed of response is something Nyfast emphasises, an advantage against less nimble businesses: "Sometimes larger suppliers will take a day or more for someone to get back to you, but we can have a solution while they're still on the phone."
The agile firm can make decisions fast, it says, providing an example during the Covid lockdown. A phone call came in from a customer unsure how to solve the challenge of attaching a part to a mask. Within six minutes, Jake came up with a solution and Nyfast ended the month with record sales from that single product. Marcus says: "It's not to just help the person and make some money, but customers can have that trust in us, that we will understand their challenges and then we can leverage our speed advantage."
Nyfast products find their way into of-the-moment tech like data centres, electric vehicle charging and 5G masts, and seeking out new areas is a continued priority.
New business & strong connections
Nyfast is keen to explore new business and welcomes enquiries. Marcus says: "We have a very dynamic communication with customers and we're honest and up-front. It means we can get quicker solutions for them. We talk a lot about new business. We have people approach us with a new project but also those with existing requirements where they are buying from elsewhere and they're having supply chain issues or service issues or pricing issues. We're genuinely interested in relationships because it makes business a lot easier to do."
Sometimes you do get a call from someone in dire straits, Marcus shares: "When you have someone who's potentially going into a line stoppage and they've got 200 people sitting there being held up by a washer... We had that not so long ago. So, I grabbed 10,000 washers, put them in my motorbike and I drove to Bristol. We didn't charge them for doing that... they were very grateful and the line went live!"
Circling back to that point made earlier, people are at the core of the Nyfast proposition: "We as directors feel it's the right thing to do, to make sure that we're building a proper team. Everybody here is looked after and we want them to feel like they're part of our project. We understand the difficulties as we get bigger and the challenges that come with that, but we certainly want to keep that ethos going.
"You've got people who are ready to work, they go through hoops because they're made to feel part of it. And we want to do things differently."
Jakes adds: "When we send mail outs to customers, we try to inject some personality into it. It's all part of the engagement of a small team. We had a fun Valentine's campaign and it got a huge response."
It's an example of how Nyfast can forge strong connections, even while the trend may be moving towards more orders made digitally, including on emails, rather than over the phone. Jake picks up the theme: "Even on an email you can build a relationship. We have our pictures in the signature and you get to see who you are talking to... And new customers over email get followed up with a call."
And the Nyfast formula is paying off, with the business seeing significant sales increases yearly, in the region of 20%.
"We're interested in creating a proper atmosphere and environment. The classic point is that you spend more time with the people in the office than you do with your own family - it would be pretty good if we all got on, wouldn't it? Culture is top of our priorities."
Jake adds: "In the lead up to Marcus retiring I have spent the last few years trying to implement things that he has taught me about this ethos. We want everyone to feel looked after and that we're valuing them."
While the firm admits this will become a larger challenge as Nyfast grows, it's one they're relishing.
Marcus concludes: "It's absolutely vital that we're building the business on rock. Not sand. We grow with the right people. That goes for suppliers, customers and employees... We really enjoy it and we feel we are growing with the right people. It just makes total business sense."
