Birmingham based independent forklift dealership Abex Ltd has yet again provided the winning formula for GET plc, one of the country’s leading and fastest growing manufacturers and suppliers of electrical accessories, lamps, CCTV and air movement products. A comprehensive review of requirements at its National Operations Centre in the West Midlands has resulted in a new handling package from Abex which delivers triple benefits of fleet rationalisation, more efficient operations and cost savings.
GET supplies major household names such as B&Q, Focus, Homebase and Wickes and swift order picking and loading at the 350,000ft² NOC is a crucial element of the company’s commitment to rapid customer response. Due to an increasing portfolio of product lines, GET’s National Operations Director Des Morgan was keen to update his fleet to cope with the 40,000 pallet and 10,000 picking positions, whilst reducing overall expenditure.
Des Morgan cites Abex’s ability to source innovative handling solutions as one of the main reasons for his 14 year long relationship with the company, which has recently been appointed as the Nissan Dealership for the West Midlands. The mix of equipment proposed by Abex MD Martin Connop once again ticked all the right boxes.
By recognising the scope of power pallet trucks as the major vehicle for the internal, horizontal movement of palletised goods around the warehouse, Abex was able to reduce the number of forklifts in the fleet and supplied six new Nissan 1.5t gas trucks to replace the previous total of nine counterbalance trucks. Two new Nissan PLP power pallet trucks and three (soon to be four) German built Magaziner man-rising order picking and placing trucks complete the new package which is slimmed down in size but heavy-weight in operational efficiency.
The Magaziner is a dual purpose VNA vehicle which enables single cartons to be retrieved from pallets or whole pallets to be stored or retrieved. Martin Connop holds it in high regard and comments: “It has everything needed to do the job but is straightforwardly designed with no unnecessary extras. As you would expect from a German product , it is robust, reliable and of excellent quality, I believe this product has bright future.” At GET the trucks work in a 1,400mm guided aisle operation with 6.4m of lift height, but the Magaziner range provides lift heights of up to 12m if required. Magaziner, now selling under their own name, have a proven track record thanks to a previous collaboration with a major international forklift concern and GET’s drivers have nothing but praise for the way they operate.
A planned maintenance programme means that Abex service engineers are regularly on site, enabling GET to do away with the costly spare truck scenario. Should extra equipment be temporarily needed, it can be quickly provided due to Abex’s commitment to speedy response for it’s customer base across the Midlands.
Des Morgan has used national suppliers in the past, but is in no doubt that the service offered by an independent and smaller operation such as Abex is far superior in terms of advice, flexibility, contract terms and back-up. “National operations lay claim to flexibility, but are bound to a brand and are often too big and hierarchical to deliver their promises.” he says. “It is crucial to have the right equipment for the job, which is constantly evolving as our company grows. Abex reviews the situation on a regular basis and is able to provide us with what we need, rather than what it wants to supply. In short Abex goes that bit further.”