B&M Bargains, one of the leading variety retailers in the UK, enjoyed a “bargain” of their own after saving thousands of pounds when they awarded Bendi the contract to supply a fleet of articulated forklift trucks for the company’s new warehouse in Speke, Liverpool.
B&M, who was formed in 1976, have become one of the leading retailers in the UK with over 230 stores and employing more than 7000 staff. With over one million customers going through their doors each week, the warehouse facility at Blackpool could not cope with the extra demand and the decision was taken to move to a brand new 625,000 sq ft facility in Speke, Liverpool.
Faced with a storage target of 80,000 pallet positions and in a warehouse that had to cater for bulk storage and order picking for the 200+ stores, B&M were initially considering a mix of VNA and Reach Trucks. However that soon changed after first being introduced to Bendi and then visiting a number of existing Bendi customer sites. Having never used articulated trucks before it was imperative that B&M were satisfied that the trucks would perform safely and efficiently at a height of over 11m and that productivity targets could be achieved.
The first major cost saving for B&M was the warehouse floor. Had they decided to go for VNA trucks, B&M would have had no option but to lay a new floor to ensure the trucks optimum performance and safe operation. The Bendi B420HL however performs exceptionally well at 12m on the existing floor, which resulted in considerable savings to B&M.
Another cost saving consideration for B&M was the fact that Bendi articulated trucks do not need any form of guidance compared to the expensive rail or wire guidance required with VNA trucks. Throw in the smaller transfer aisles, faster pallet ‘put aways’, no expensive “P+D” stations and the flexibility to go outside and unload vehicles if called upon and you see why this all added up to a real bargain for B&M.
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