Bolton based BID Group was started as a family business back in 1985 and has grown to become a one stop shop for all industrial door, loading bay plus gate and barrier needs.
Neil Rothwell, Commercial Finance Director at BID Group Ltd speaks to Warehouse & Logistics News.
What are your best-known products/solutions/services?
BID Group have a wide range of products and aim to offer a one stop shop for all industrial door, loading bay plus gate and barrier solutions. We are however best known for our industry leading Klimate High Speed and K2 Freezer doors which have been manufactured in Bolton for the past 30 years and offer an extremely reliable and robust solution to improve traffic flows, maintain temperature variations between areas and save energy – some of our high-speed doors have been in place and operating for over 20 years completing dozens of cycles a day.
Which industry sectors are your customers in and which ones are growing fastest?
BID Group operate across a wide range of sectors including supermarket chains, warehousing and food logistics, FM companies, food producers and the emergency services. During the covid pandemic most people ordered food and other essentials direct to their doors – a trend that has continued even after lockdown. As a result we have seen a dramatic increase in demand from the logistics sector.
The nature of this fast-moving consumer goods sector means any downtime can be very costly, however as we have 60 teams of mobile engineers located nationwide we have been able to respond quickly to our customer’s needs and limit the amount of expensive downtime.
What are your most recent product innovations?
We are constantly seeking to improve the design of our manufactured products and have our own R&D Production Manager who focuses on this area. We have recently made improvements to the design of our high-speed doors to decrease the amount of welding required thereby creating a more modular design for easier installation and replacement of damaged sections. This has also had the added benefit of us being able to separate our two manufacturing sites into heavier fabrication and welding at a specially dedicated site with lighter fabrication and assembly at our Head Office site.
What are the major trends and developments affecting your category and your customers, and how are you responding?
Perhaps not surprisingly Environmental aspects are at the forefront of our current thinking, with our Klimate and K2 High Speed doors being designed to reduce customers heating/cooling costs by keeping ambient temperature steady whilst at the same time maintaining steady traffic flows. At a time when energy costs are seeing unprecedented increases the savings in this area can be considerable. In addition we have recently upgraded our K2 freezer doors (installed primarily at large supermarket and cold logistics distribution centres) so that they draw less current to operate – being able to operate this type of high performance door off a single 16 amp supply can again, save huge amounts in energy over the lifetime of the door as well as reducing the need for costly electrical upgrade work at specification / installation. We don’t just pay lip-service in this area and are proud to hold the ISO14001 environmental accreditation underlining our continued commitment.
Can you tell us about any recent customer contracts and how you helped the customer meet their challenges?
We recently helped a new customer who had been let down on their loading bay dock leveller installation project. This major British retailer of food, clothes and homewares had commissioned a 24-bay dock leveller renewal project to strict deadlines, however they were let down badly when their originally specified European manufacturer encountered supply issues and announced a few weeks before start that they would be unable to deliver.
Our Key Account Manager got involved and brought the project team to our Bolton offices and manufacturing facility where we were able to showcase our product being built and convince them that we would be able to alter production schedules and not only provide the product but also install it to the original specification and meet the deadline. The project went well and we now have a very satisfied new customer.
How does business in 2021 compare to previous years? What’s your strategy for succeeding in the current climate?
2020/21 have been tough years for business and the current economic uncertainty makes the outlook look just as challenging. BID Group are a people and service company and will therefore continue our focus on meeting with and understanding our customers specific needs face to face – it’s difficult to let someone down when you have to look them in the eye.
We also hold a significant amount of stock parts and raw materials to try and protect against the current supply side issues and whilst this might niggle the trained accountant side of me it’s always great to see us delight our customers by being able to meet their needs.
What’s the latest news from your company?
We are proud to be a UK manufacturer and showcasing our products and the benefits they can offer locally and in person is key, we’re a bit old fashioned like that and prefer to have face to face meetings to build trust and long-term relationships with our customers. To help with this strategy we are installing mini showrooms at each of our 5 regional depots so that customers can visit us and see the product in action and discuss their requirements whilst meeting the regional teams who will look after them.
Can you tell us about any areas where you’re currently making technical advances eg safety, sustainability, environment?
We have a small in-house R&D team who are constantly working on our doors and dock-levellers to improve them and we’re proud that our products are manufactured for durability and will stand the test of time reducing our customers repair bills and environmental footprint.
Are you investing in staff training and skills development?
It’s well recognised that recruiting suitably qualified and experienced engineers is an industry wide problem and although this is finally now starting to be addressed by government policy with schools and colleges offering more vocational courses the problem isn’t going away any time soon. The customer showrooms mentioned above will serve a dual purpose and are designed to double-up as training bays providing a simulated safe on-site working area for engineer training and development. This way we can offer a ground-up training programme for new and existing engineers to improve skills and enable progression within the group.
Are you taking part in any major trade shows? Can you tell us what you’ll be exhibiting there?
As a smaller company we have limited resource to exhibit at any of the major forthcoming shows. We prefer to use our own manufacturing facilities in Bolton as well as our regional depots to meet customers locally and discuss their specific needs.
BID Group Ltd
t: 0870 607 5050
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