Despite our troubled economy, it’s a buoyant time all round for Bendi, with 70% growth in new truck sales during 2007 and 2007-8 turnover running at £25m. Bendi has over half the UK articulated truck market, and leads the way in materials handling in smaller spaces. Warehouse & Logistics News went to Redditch to catch up with the latest developments from this award-winning, innovative, independent British company. The economic soothsayers may be spreading gloom elsewhere, but Bendi’s optimism shines out. “All forklift companies had good years in 2007,” says Bendi’s founder Freddy Brown, “but things are set to change. The overall UK truck market will tighten, however our business and articulated truck sales in general will grow, because we are addressing new areas.”
Bendi’s Chairman and designer began manufacturing his groundbreaking, space-saving forklift trucks in 1969. Of his stream of pacesetting trucks launched since then, Freddy’s greatest achievement is the Bendi articulated truck. Invented in the early 1980s, Bendi’s core benefits of saving space, time and money for all types of customers and operations have made it an outstanding specialist player in the world truck market.
Often imitated but never equaled, and made with care rather than mass-produced, the Bendi is an extremely Versatile Narrow Aisle (VNA) forklift truck, with many innovative and advantageous features. The most important of these are the ability to store pallets in aisles as small as 1.6m, lift pallets to 12.5m and operate both in and out of doors, combining the functions of a yard truck and a reach truck.
Bendi moving on up
Since we last interviewed Freddy and his son Simon and colleagues some 18 months ago, there have been big developments at Bendi, including a change of top management and a major capital investment programme.
On the management front, Bendi founder Freddy Brown has sold his shares to Simon and Paul Overfield, who continue as the two operating directors. Paul heads up day-to-day operations, while Simon directs the sales and marketing. Freddy will continue to undertake the company’s development work and advise Simon and Paul as required. John Ryan, former Joint MD and a major Bendi shareholder, has retired after over 25 years and sold his shares to the two remaining directors. This transition completes a long established succession plan, which has rolled out over nearly three years.
Outside the boardroom, Bendi has invested close to £1m over 12 months in property, IT, and manufacturing plant and equipment. Bendi’s office and factory building is currently being enlarged with an extension. The new factory area gives 25% extra floor space, bringing production under one roof and increasing efficiency. The move will create one of the UK’s longest forklift production lines, and certainly the world’s longest such line for articulated trucks when it goes live in late spring.
Bendi has also developed a new visitor centre in a separate building nearby. This is also due to be operational by late spring, to meet the demand of the ever increasing number of people who want to see and understand the Bendi phenomenon. Facilities will include an open plan area for demos and presentations, overlooked by a viewing gallery upstairs, and a conference room and dining area.
The brilliance of the vision behind the Bendi was formally recognised in 2003 when the company received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise – Innovation. Bendi trucks are now made and sold worldwide: meanwhile here in the UK, where the story began, Bendi continues to win committed supporters for its high performing portfolio.
Bendi breaking barriers
Bendi’s biggest news this spring is that UK sales of its trucks have now exceeded the 7,500 mark, with 500 sold since October.
“Our biggest penetration is in 3PLs,” says Simon Brown, “but anyone who’s storing items is considering Bendi, including manufacturers and importers, even organisations as diverse as Scottish Power and the NHS. Most high street brands have Bendi in their distribution networks: major retailers using them include B&Q, Hobbycraft, and Julian Graves.
“Our retail accounts are quite specific about using our trucks to optimise their use of shop floor space and reduce warehouse capacity. They state that a considerable percentage of efficiency would be lost each week without our trucks to make the space work harder.”
Bendi trucks are available in front wheel drive, rear wheel drive and 4WD. Power is electric – AC and DC versions are available – or gas, either LPG or CNG. Electric-only models are the B3 front wheel drive range, the B420 rear wheel drive, which lifts to 9 m, and the B41 ‘high lift’ rear wheel drive, which lifts to 12 m. The Long Loader combines side loader and pallet lifting functions and lifts to 9m. The Bendi IC four wheel drive range of trucks can lift 1 tonne to 9 m as standard, but the latest model can go to 12 m. Bendi’s biggest sellers are the B3 and B420 families, accounting for 70% of new truck sales.
Bendi seizing the opportunities
Bendi see the prospect of recession as a positive opportunity: “Any downturn will benefit us,” says Simon Brown. “In tough times, people can’t afford reach trucks: they need to save space, hence many companies are moving to Versatile Narrow Aisle trucks. Warehousing is a luxury in these conditions, with people closing units and compacting and consolidating. Bendi achieves this and saves money from day one.”
Bendi has its eye on the market for replacements for the 3,000 reach trucks in the UK reaching the end of their lifespan every year: “Business must go on,” says Simon Brown. “People should be looking at savings as their reach truck contracts come to an end, which is where our Versatile Narrow Aisle trucks come in.”
Bendi is the cheapest way to store pallets in adjustable pallet racking, in terms of pounds per pallet stored, and offers greater versatility and throughputs than narrow aisle trucks.
“No-one can match us for minimum aisle widths,” says Freddy Brown. “In 1.6 metre spaces we’re the obvious choice, and far easier to drive if the aisle are wide enough for our competitors trucks. Drivers like Bendi trucks – they feel more stable all round. For employers, our articulated trucks mean quicker throughputs and less product damage.”
An independent outlook
Nissan’s 2007 purchase of Atlet makes Bendi one of Europe’s longest surviving independent lift truck makers. “If a buyer approached us we’d listen,” says Simon Brown, “but we’re content as we are. People in Continental Europe have been slow to recognise the benefits of articulated forklifts: the big boys there don’t acknowledge the ‘articulated’ market because it’s non-existent there, whereas here it’s now a third of the reach truck market. Here in the UK it has become a required part of the product portfolio that all manufacturers and distributors have to supply – luckily 90% choose Bendi.”
Translift ceased production of all non-Bendi models in 1997. Some 90% of new truck sales are in the UK, the rest being exports across all of Europe, Australasia and Africa. “In Eastern Europe we deal by and large with UK companies that relocate and insist on Bendi.”
Since the 1990s Bendi has had a licensing agreement with Landoll for them to make Bendi trucks in the US and market them in the Americas, Asia and the Middle East, where they currently sell over 700 Bendi’s per year. Freddy Brown observes: “The American partnership has been a very happy one for us. The trucks are built to our designs, and we pass on our latest technical enhancements to them.”
Half Bendi’s UK sales are through its direct sales force, the remainder being through dealers, who are free to sell other truck brands as well. Some 70% of new Bendi trucks sold in the UK go into the rental market: Bendi has its own hire fleet of 2,000 trucks, 400 of which are available for short-term rental.
Bendi also has a very healthy used truck business, selling 120 reconditioned machines per year. Service and repair is an important revenue stream, with the majority of work done at customers’ locations by Bendi’s nationwide team of service technicians.
Trained for success
Bendi trains dealers’ technicians on site or at its training centre in Redditch. It takes a single day to make a qualified service engineer familiar with Bendi.
Similarly, Bendi carries out operator training either at its driver training centre at Redditch, or at customers’ locations: “It’s actually easier to drive a Bendi than a reach truck,” says Simon Brown, “but we want people to be able to drive our trucks as soon as they get them. We go beyond the call of duty to make sure drivers can operate our trucks efficiently. In addition to the mandatory requirements to be qualified to drive a Bendi, we like to ensure that operators get exposed to job specific skills. It’s similar to taking an advanced drivers course in your car, making drivers more confident, efficient and safer.”
A forklift driver with an existing operator licence needs a two-day upgrade course to a P1 Articulated Counterbalance qualification. Bendi trains operators to its own syllabus, headed by Jonathan Handley of Bendi Driver Training.
Tailored to fit
Bendi’s house colour is orange, but machines can be supplied in retailers’ corporate livery if required. Other customisation options include explosion proofing and closed cabs for cold stores or polar conditions like the machine installed in the US military base in the South Pole.
Bendi offer customers advice on rack layouts and provide detailed drawings, and work closely with racking suppliers to ensure Bendi’s activity compliments theirs.
Bendi trucks can work on most floors: “They don’t need to be very flat for our trucks to run smoothly, unlike traditional VNA rising cab trucks.”
In our environmentally conscious times, Bendi trucks are very green, says Simon Brown: “We offer major carbon footprint savings all round, with reduced numbers of warehouse trucks and storage space. But it goes further – by increasing the efficiency of their warehouses, our customers are taking up less land, putting down less concrete, and using less heat and light… the space utilisation impacts go on and on.”
In performance, Bendi trucks are 30% more efficient economically and environmentally than the typical reach truck. The IC trucks work to California regulations, and feature a three way ‘cat’ with a closed loop. And the environmental friendliness continues even after the trucks’ lifecycle: Bendi’s refurbishments take an existing chassis and effectively create a new machine from the same steel.
Continuous improvements
Bendi trucks have seen numerous improvements over the years, but the biggest improvement overall has to be the reduction in minimum aisle width: “In the early 1980s we were operating in an average working space of a 2.2m aisle; in the 1990s it was 1.8m, and since 2000 we’ve been down to a minimum 1.6m. Everyone else in narrow aisle articulated trucks are still on 1.8m. It’s being there first with the latest innovation that keeps us in front whileon our toes.”
The Way Forward
Freddy Brown believes the Bendi concept still has plenty of potential for further development: “When I built the first Bendi, I saw it primarily as a truck capable of working in a smaller space. Now, it’s a matter of why not build an articulated machine to replace every type of material handling equipment that’s out there – even container lifters?”
Several new Bendi trucks are on the way from Freddy Brown’s development centre. One is a yard truck capable of working indoors in a 2-metre aisle, which will attack both the reach truck and counterbalance markets, with a projected price below £20,000. Another is a ‘Euro’ truck, which will replace wrap-over fork support arm stackers.
The biggest single external factor affecting Bendi is competition, says Simon Brown: “Having competitors pushes us forward and keeps us in front. Rising steel and lead prices affect us like everyone else, but we have the facility to source these materials from our partners around the world using different currencies to absorb some of the impact. That said, we notice the impact like everybody else.
“Our view is that the UK market prices have been dominated by the European manufacturers fighting for market share, and this has had its toll on many of them with change of ownership, restructuring and a lot of instability in today’s market. Many of these players are now looking for increased prices – not decreased prices brought about by a recession none of them are ready for. As long as we at Bendi sit tight and concentrate on core business, we will emerge unscathed.”
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