Narrow Aisle Flexi are recognised as a leader in the design and manufacture of very narrow aisle articulated warehouse trucks. The company pioneered the development of Flexi Articulated VNA Trucks 30 years ago and have built a reputation for great design, absolute reliability and exceptionally high resale values.
Managing Director
Narrow Aisle design and build Flexi Tucks in the UK with high quality ‘Tier One’ mostly European sourced components across the range, which allows them to provide exceptional warranty and spare parts availability. The company offers international technical support operating through a global network of established independent distributors in over 70 countries.
John Maguire, Managing Director at Narrow Aisle spoke to Warehouse & Logistics News.
First of all John can you talk us through the different products and services Narrow Aisle provides?
We pioneered the design and manufacturing of the Flexi Truck range of VNA warehouse storage solutions. Our Flexi Trucks range from 1.5 tonnes (VNA) capacity to 3.0 tonnes (heavy-duty) capacity, with lift heights available from 3 metres to 15 metres, very narrow stacking aisle performance from as little as 1.6 metres between pallets. Easy to operate and popular with lift truck drivers, the manoeuvrable Flexi Truck increases usable storage space by between 25-50%, operating in very narrow aisles (VNA), unloading from transport and transfering to pallet storage in a single operation, eliminating double pallet handling.
What sets your company apart as a supplier in your category?
Our company has always specialised in providing efficient, space-saving solutions to the retail, third party warehousing, logistics and manufacturing sectors. The development of the Flexi Articulated warehouse truck concept in 1990 provided a step change; it allows our customers to reduce stacking aisles and maximise storage capacity without the need for steel rails or wire guidance.
At the same time they can safely carry out efficient customers’ order assembly at the key ground level locations, allowing the operator to bulk store pallets above the ground level pick face and therefore create a real distribution centre solution, with over 30% more pallet storage density. These attributes are in great demand due to the rapid development of ‘micro’ warehouses in urban areas that provide product delivery in hours rather than days.
Our team of product managers provide a totally free design service to help businesses who have storage capacity and pallet throughput challenges to find cost-effective solutions to their needs, often utilising their existing building to produce huge cost saving.
What business sectors are your customers in?
We have always been specialists in VNA, our range of Flexi variants covers a huge range of applications from retail back of store to urban micro warehouse to high bay RDC’s. Other manufacturers make, for example, engine power forklift trucks or dock container handling equipment, which have no synergy with warehousing intralogistics. This has allowed our company to become expert in designing efficient VNA warehouse storage solutions for customers in the food, retail and 3PL sectors.
A completely different approach is required to provide intralogistics storage solutions; it’s not just about “engineering trucks,” it’s about understanding the customers’ real needs and having an understanding of the warehousing arena and we have over 30 years’ experience in this area.
Which industry sectors are growing fastest for you?
Our development and launch of the Flexi Lithium product range has been very exciting, since the launch event there has been a surge in orders for this product especially among those customers who previously used propane gas powered articulated trucks.
Since the launch, all the Flexi models across the range are available with integrated Lithium-Ion battery-power, providing the safest and most energy efficient solution on the market.
Flexi LiTHiON trucks require virtually no battery maintenance – the truck monitors the battery function constantly and reports the battery status real time, while the fact that the Flexi LiTHiON range’s batteries can be fully charged within one or two hours, even if the battery is fully discharged – ensures that truck uptime is optimised.
There is a step forward in Lead Acid battery technology Flexi Easy-Change, a new intelligent forklift truck battery ‘Call Forward’ charging and change management system that further improves lift truck fleet efficiency for multi shift users of battery-powered Flexi articulated trucks. When combined with highly efficient HF chargers, current energy costs can be reduced by up to 50%.
Which of your core products and solutions are you presenting at IMHX?
Our stand will present at least a few of the key Flexi products from our range, as well as solar battery charging technology, Cobotic interface picking in aisle solutions, and space frame ‘High Bay’ lift mast technology.
Are you launching anything new at the show?
At IMHX we are taking the opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of the new Flexi ACiON and LiTHiON products. The new technology includes integrated solar charging of Flexi batteries with on site storage of energy.
Our Flexi Warehouse Systems Division will be exhibiting. They use our 30 years of industry experience to develop customers’ projects looking at all the elements that influence the efficiency of their operation and future payback of their new warehouse, especially the concept of compressing the project timeframe to accelerate implementation and therefore payback starts earlier.
Why should busy professionals from the warehouse and logistics industry take time out to visit your stand at IMHX?
Since becoming Managing Director in 2019, just before Covid struck, we moved to implement a number of key technologies that drove our company into the future. The introduction of the Flexi LiTHiON range and the next generation of fully digital controlled Flexi trucks that need 20% less energy than before.
These developments place our company at the forefront of warehouse truck technology, creating a range of VNA space saving solutions that are uber energy efficient, extremely easy to drive and have the ability to have ‘cobotic’ features and upgrades overtime to ensure they remain efficient in today’s fast moving ‘micro’ and ‘Cobotic’ market landscape.
Can you tell us about your major customer contract wins since the last show in 2019?
Our exceptional growth in the Middle East, Africa and India region has been a real success. Many new warehouse developments in these countries are finding the Flexi Truck to be the perfect solution due to the rapid project implementation time and ease of operation even on ‘standard’ warehouse floors. The USA economy continues to expand, the US tendency to unload semi-trailors off level docks suits our Flexi concept as we provide our own quad lift mast to de-stuff the semi-trailers and still lift to 5.6 metres. A key product in the North American market.
Which other countries do you operate in besides the UK?
We are an internationally focused company that provides innovative warehouse truck-based storage systems to the global Intralogistics industry and this is reflected in the growing number of overseas warehouse operators investing in our advanced technology.
Narrow Aisle began exporting as long ago as 1976 mainly on a project-by-project basis. However, the introduction of the Flexi Truck system in 1990 saw a move towards a global distribution network. Since 2004, we have actively sought to develop this network globally and now have partners in 70 countries, who provide full after-sales support to their clients. Our recent direct launch into the North American market has been a huge success with customers, they’re seeing the tremendous benefit of our space saving technology solutions.
It’s two years to the next IMHX. Where do you see your company going in that time?
Our plans include developing our distribution in Asia, these fast growing markets are moving to develop their intralogistics industry in line with ecommerce and the need for ‘micro’ warehouses to provide last mile product availability in urban areas. India and China are already developing quickly and others will follow.
Narrow Aisle
0121 557 6242
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