Company - Key Facts:

We are a UK based company that mainly provides repair and refurbishment of Information Technology equipment such as desktop computers, laptops, servers and peripheral equipment. We also provide the following services:

• Offering PC maintenance packages to keep consumers' PC's factory fresh, free of spyware, viruses, and malware, for residential, corporate and educational customers.
• The repair, refurbishment and re-sale of consumer electronic equipment such as cameras, camcorders, fridges/freezers, video recorders, hi-fi systems, and DJ Equipment etc.
• The repair, refurbishment and resale of TV's, including CRT, Plasma & LCD models, of all makes and screen sizes.
• The repair, maintenance, refurbishment and sale of mobile phones and related accessories.
• The repair and installation of CCTV systems in buildings, trains, buses, shops etc.
• The repair, maintenance and refurbishment of snack/drink vending machines, refrigeration cabinets, and arcade machines of all ages.

We primarily operate in the North West of the UK. We are headquartered in Whitefield, Manchester, and have a secondary workshop in Warrington, UK. We employ 7 people, both staff and volunteers, across both premises.

We recorded revenues of GBP £3,000 in the fiscal year ended April 2008.

We're Employee Owned!!

You may have noticed that we do things a little differently around here. There's a reason for that. Kitamura is owned by its staff & volunteers. We're independent. We're a tight-knit family of close friends who started the business and we're not looking to sell out to investors or gigantic companies who care more about the bottom line than providing solid customer love and computer/electronics repairs.

Believe us, there's plenty of those in the PC repair industry already (*cough* PC World *cough*) and you probably don't want to get mixed up with them. The guys who work at those companies are crazy. They earn sales commissions. They dress in 'business casual' attire. They have no product knowledge! They use baffling tech jargon and overcharge inexperienced computer users for tiny ten-a-penny jobs. They attend 'conferences'. They wear cologne. Wearing cologne in the Kitamura office is grounds for a firing. Or at least a solid 8 hours of playful harassment. Or sitting in the staff naughty corner. Heh, we're a fun bunch, and aren't too serious about our job. That doesn't mean we don't know what we're doing though!

We love it here and we're all focused on computer, console & consumer goods repairs. We love our customers. It's what we do. It's what we're good at. And we're not faceless robots. Why not drop in, meet the team and have a (free!) cuppa with us? Maybe you'll even want to use our services once you've had a chance to check us out! (We'll do you seriously proud, AND look after you at the same time!)

We're looking forward to welcoming you to our family!

We're properly trained professionals!

Here at Kitamura, we're passionate about computers and electronics. We're so passionate that we've spent thousands in both money and time in training. We are authorised Tiny/Time repairers, and are certified Toshiba computer and TV engineers. We regularly undertake refresher courses for all our certification, especially our Microsoft qualifications. We are a Microsoft Gold partner, and have an ongoing MSDN and TechNet subscription to obtain legal genuine product keys for every machine we build, sell, and repair, when we perform an operating system refresh in the computer repair side of our operations.

We do things by the book, literally!

When we service a computer, or an electronic device, we take pride in it. We're not like your average cowboy shops, or your "whizz kid neighbours" (yeah, we've heard of them, and corrected their amateur work!) that just rip things to bits, without caring where stuff goes. We follow manufacturer documentation to dismantle it, repair & service it, then put it back together. Every screw is in the right place, components are seated correctly, and the equipment won't fall apart. It usually is in a better state than before it came to us in most cases, because if we see something that isn't right we'll fix it!

We have thousands of repair manuals, purchased from manufacturers, that we use. You can be sure your equipment is safe with us! We're also fully trained electrical engineers, and between us have 30 years of skills, to ensure your equipment is repaired competently, first time, every time.

The Bottom Line - We're Caring!

Our most unique selling point is that we care. You'll be treated like family, we'll go out of our way to make sure you're happy. In fact, you'll be so happy you'll be bouncing like a happy bunny that's just found the juciest carrot! (No, we don't sell carrots! Or rabbits!)

We don't make our money selling warranties or support packages you don't need (but have them if you do!) like most firms, we just sell good products, with a smile, and the support you need, if you ever need it, when you do. You bring your equipment in, we listen to your problem, and give you the truthful honest diagnosis, rather than picking stuff out of thin air.

The Kitamura Team:

Name	Level	Region
James Thomas Butterworth	Managing Director/Chief Engineer	Manchester/Warrington
Greg Mitchell	Co-Director & Customer Liason Officer (CLO)	Whitefield
Mitsumi Winterflower	Sales Volunteer	Warrington
Peter Redwood	Assistant Managing Director/Technician	Warrington
Jennifer Louise Harrington	Secretarial Volunteer	Warrington
Lara Rebecca Redfield	Secretarial Volunteer	Warrington
Kanako Ishikawa	Shareholder/Linux & Mac Engineer/Company Advisor
Jenny Nightingale	Technician	Bolton/Bury

How Kitamura started life

When we first started in 2006, we only repaired laptops, desktops and printers. James and Pete, the Director and Co-Director have a long background in electronics, home appliances, and as car mechanics, Pete has also spent 12 years in the telecommunications and CCTV industry. They soon realised they needed something to set Kitamura apart from all other "common" PC repair firms, as just about anyone can pull a tower PC to bits. They slowly started introducing other services such as consumer electronics repairs, fixing TV's, VCR's, and goods like that. Now, 8 years later, we do home appliances, electric and petrol gardening equipment such as tractors, and even serve the remote control car enthusiast community by fixing nitro engine powered remote control cars, trucks and buggies! We're no longer just a PC repair company, no other repair firm can compete with us, and there's still just the two of us offering all this! Within the next five years we are looking to broaden our user base, possibly becoming a home brand name.

Why the name Kitamura? Why do you use an eagle in your logo?

We get asked this a lot. There's a very special reason for our name. The company is dedicated to the memory of Ryoko Kitamura, the best friend of the Director's Japanese girlfriend Kanako. Ryoko passed away in 2006 in tragic circumstances, so we named the company after her as a tribute, using her surname. There are no other computer companies called Kitamura Computers anywhere in the world, so it makes us very unique. Kanako is an advisor and consultant to the company, she thought it a really touching gesture. Ryo always wanted to work in IT customer support, and was offered a job with us, but sadly she passed away before the company was established.

The eagle in our logo and Oath represents our attitude to customer service. Eagles are swift, precise and accurate, rather like our customer service and understanding of IT and electronics. We work hard to bring you great top notch service. It's what Ryoko would have wanted, and when times are bad we think of her cheery attitude, it drives us forward.