Established over 30 years ago, Coxhoe Service & Supply is one of North East England’s leading suppliers of industrial cleaning equipment, offering a one stop sales, service and hire shop.
Coxhoe supply a full range of equipment covering all aspects of cleaning, including hot and cold, high and low pressure washing applications, specialist vacuum cleaners and a wide choice of ride on and pedestrian floor scrubber dryers, floor sweepers and bespoke systems. They provide sales, service, long and short term hire or lease and finance packages to suit all budgets and repairs on all types of cleaning equipment, and are recognised service centres for major manufacturers such as Nilfisk-Alto and Karcher.
Coxhoe’s dedicated staff incorporate a service department with over 100 years’ experience between them and a sales team to advise customers on the most suitable products for the application required. Coxhoe are particularly proud of their parts department, which holds large quantities of parts for all machines, and if they don’t have the part they need, they are confident they can source it, whatever the make of machine.
Based in Spennymoor, County Durham, Coxhoe are ideally situated to cover the North East, North West, Scotland and beyond. Whilst primarily covering the North East they also have customers as far south as Coventry and north to Orkney and Shetland and many places in between.
Kevin Jackson, the founder of Coxhoe Service & Supply, spoke to Warehouse & Logistics News.
Warehouse & Logistics News – First of all, Kevin, what is your role in the business day to day? Are you personally involved in working with clients to provide them with the right cleaning machines for their needs?
I am personally involved with clients in all aspects of customer service, from the initial sale or hire right through to hands on servicing, ensuring the customer gets exactly what they require.
WLN – Who else is in the team besides you?
Coxhoe Service & Supply is run by a small dedicated team, headed by partners Kevin Jackson and Ian Heron, with Phil Pearson heading the sales and marketing and Peter Bowman handling stores spare parts and internal admin. Kevin and Ian are heavily involved in day to day hands on servicing, assisted by Robert Tomys and Darrin Hughes on the road and Dave Clark taking care of home-based servicing in the workshop. Finally Catherine Jackson takes care of accounts and admin.
WLN – How big is Coxhoe now?
Size doesn’t matter to our customers; it’s the service we provide that counts. We’re big enough to cope and small enough to care, with a positive outlook on growth but not at all costs.
WLN – What is your proposition for warehousing and logistics operations specifically?
It’s the same for them as it is for all customer groups. We provide the right machine for the job whatever it may be. We would rather walk away than supply an inappropriate machine.
WLN – What customer benefits can Coxhoe offer that the big machine manufacturers can’t?
As I said before, we are all about service. We provide personal service and we listen and advise, we are not a sell at all costs outfit.
WLN – Can you talk us through the different makes and types of industrial cleaning equipment that you offer?
We offer all types of machines for all applications, from a small compact vacuum cleaner for the smallest jobs to the largest ride on machine for all indoor and outdoor applications.
WLN – When advising customers on the right machine, what criteria do you use to decide which kind of cleaner they need?
First and foremost, before any machines are discussed a site survey and customer discussion takes place and a formula built up from this.
WLN – Do you also supply the consumables to go with your equipment – vacuum cleaner bags, belts, cleaning fluids and so on?
We supply all consumables for our machines and have a close working relationship with a bespoke chemical manufacturer whom we recommend, but ultimately the customer will choose the detergent supplier. We are engineers, not chemical experts.
WLN – Which of the cleaning machines that you’ve mentioned are you direct distributors for?
We are direct distributors for all the major companies, Nilfisk, Nilfisk ALTO, Kärcher, Numatic, Truvox, Ehrle, Dennis Rawlings, Victor and Tennant, to mention a few.
WLN – What bespoke industrial cleaning systems do you supply? Do you make these yourselves?
The bespoke systems we supply are usually in the form of a pressure wash-down system or centralised vacuum system, usually formed from bespoke components supplied by a major manufacturer and tailored to suit customer requirements.
WLN – How ‘green’ are the cleaning machines you supply?
Nilfisk cleaning machines naturally consume energy, water and in certain product areas also detergents. In this area Nilfisk can make the maximum possible impact in our environmental efforts and it is their goal to accomplish more with less – simultaneously reducing the cost for customers whilst improving environmental behaviour. Nilfisk take a leading position in this development, and call it Green Meets Clean. That is why Nilfisk in their global development process consider the four key environmental factors in our industry to be energy, water, less detergent and disposal. Through a Customer Focused Technology Development programme, Nilfisk is dedicated to driving customer focused technology and innovation forward to implement unique and green product offerings.
WLN – Can you tell us about the different kinds of customers for your industrial cleaning equipment?
What size are they, and which industry sectors are they in? Our customer base is made up from small one-man operations to multinational companies and everything in between. We operate across every type of sector: if something needs to be cleaned, we can supply a machine to do the job, and if we can’t then we know someone who can.
WLN – What are the current trends for hiring and leasing industrial cleaning equipment in the UK versus buying it outright?
The current trends are tending to be for leasing and short-term hire, and we are seeing customers spending more on refurbishing existing machines as opposed to replacing machines.
WLN – What is the UK like as a market for industrial cleaning equipment? What effect has the recession had on demand for this equipment?
At the moment we are seeing a rise in sales after a few years of customers holding back on buying new machines.
WLN – What’s your best selling industrial cleaner in terms of sales, and what’s the most popular one in terms of rental?
There is no one “Best Seller” as every application is different, but small pedestrian scrubber dryers and sweepers are the most universal.
WLN – What new industrial cleaning equipment have you introduced into the range recently?
We haven’t introduced any new equipment as such, we just promote the major manufacturers’ additions to their products, but at the moment we are engaged in the development of new battery products with a major manufacturer and it’s quite exciting.
WLN – What other industrial equipment do you offer besides cleaners?
We also supply portable infrared heaters, dry ice blasters, steam sterilisers and safety vacuums for asbestos and hazardous dusts.
WLN – Do you sell cleaners, parts or consumables via the Internet?
Yes, we have a number of different types of machine we sell on our website, although we complete a site survey before supplying a machine. We sell quite a number of spares for all makes of machines: we also have some spares for obsolete machines on our website at www.coxhoe.com and are always available to advise customers.
WLN – How easy are these machines to operate? Do you supply staff training in how to use this equipment?
They are easy to operate with a degree of common sense and yes, we will train staff in the correct operation and routine maintenance tasks.
WLN – Do you have any links with contract cleaners who use these machines?
Yes, we have quite a number of local and national contract cleaners who require either a short term or long term hire or servicing and repairs on their own equipment, which we can repair on site or at our workshop.
WLN – What’s your shortest hire period? What proportion of your business comes from warehousing and logistics operations?
We can hire by the day, but delivery and collection charges can make it more expensive. At present only 10-15% of our business is directly associated with the warehouse sector.
WLN – You cover a pretty wide geographical area. Could you service customers in the whole of mainland UK, if they wanted you to?
We like to maintain all of the business in house but sometimes needs arise when we would use authorised sub contractors from a network of manufacturers’ recommended dealers.
WLN – Any plans to buy similar companies in Southern England or elsewhere to strengthen your geographical coverage?
No, we tend to cover most areas ourselves from our central base.
WLN – Do you sell and rent out cleaning machines online?
No, although we have a selection of machines on our website, we prefer to talk to the customer first and arrange a site survey to ascertain which machine is required.
WLN – What are your office opening hours?
We are open six days a week, 7.30 am till 5pm, and the phones are diverted out of hours to either myself or Ian’s mobile to ensure all calls are dealt with suitably.
WLN – How soon can you deliver machines?
We carry some new stock, and will arrange delivery with the customer at an agreed time.
WLN – Do you exhibit at any UK warehousing and logistics trade shows?
We exhibit at regional shows and exhibitions, and can cover national events with manufacturers.
WLN – Moving forward, what do you see as the biggest external factors affecting demand for your equipment from the warehouse & logistics sector?
Our biggest problem is sourcing qualified staff to enhance our operations, but it’s a good problem to have.
WLN – Finally, where do you see Coxhoe Service & Supply going from here?
Quite simply, I see us going onwards and upwards.
Coxhoe Service & Supply
Tel: 01388 420006
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