Europe’s leading manufacturer of dry pet food is set to save thousands of pounds during a major expansion programme thanks to a new flexible hire agreement with Briggs Equipment.
The materials handling distributor and service provider will supply 34 brand new Yale counterbalance machines as part of a five-year Flexihire contract to Golden Acres.
With plans in place to double in size over the next ten years, Golden Acres needed an agreement that enabled it to alter its fleet to match its growth.
Jim Whittingham, production director at Golden Acres, explained: “We are aiming to double our turnover to £100 million. We’re currently in the process of planning to build a new 100,000 square foot warehouse at our main site in Bretherton, Leyland. We are also purchasing a 200,000 square foot warehouse which will be our new distribution centre for all finished produce as well as for our mail order distributions just nine miles away.
“Briggs’ Flexihire contract will help us to proactively manage our operations to minimise any disruptions to our services. Plus, with the new Yale trucks, we will see significant reductions in repairs and maintenance, improving usage and, therefore, productivity.”
Golden Acres had been using short-term rental equipment on a week to week rolling contract with Briggs that had needed a service engineer continuously onsite repairing and maintaining the machines.
Mark Welsby, sales executive for Briggs Equipment, commented: “We suggested a Flexihire contract to give Golden Acres more flexibility in a time of major change. Now that the older trucks have been replaced with brand new Yale machines, our engineer spends less than half the time onsite and performs only the necessary preventative maintenance to ensure optimum truck utilisation.”
In addition, the Yale machines come with a speed restriction control of 10 miles per hour to reduce accidents and damage. An engine shut down facility, which automatically switches the machines off after 30 seconds of idling, has also reduced machine usage by nearly 50 per cent.
Jim added: “We have a long standing relationship with Briggs that goes back nearly 18 years and after recommending Flexihire, we felt it was the right time to begin the new agreement. Our aim is to give 110 per cent in our service to customers and with Briggs we are able to meet demand as our business grows.”
Briggs Equipment
Scott Bullock
Tel: 01543 430 455
Comments are closed.