Established in 2010, PD Industrial has now become a trusted brand offering warehouse storage solutions and racking maintenance contracts to many of the UK’s largest companies.
Managing Director at PD Industrial
We work with our clients to offer solutions to their challenges. Our technical expertise, industry experience and access to products across the marketplace allows us to increase capacity and productivity for our clients. Regardless of the size of the project, we strive to provide a level of service that our clients deserve, which has been instrumental in our success as a business.
We operate in all sectors, but our largest growth area has been logistics, which has seen an ever-increasing demand for storage and innovative ways to manage capacity across multiple sites.
From replacing one damaged upright to carrying out a multi-million pound fitout project, we offer a truly one-stop-shop experience to support our clients’ needs. Many of these large companies are now seeing the benefits of working with a business that can serve the whole racking lifecycle, from installation to inspections and maintenance.
Darren Hardiman, Managing Director of PD Industrial spoke to Warehouse & Logistics News.
What are your best-known products/solutions/services?
PD Industrial offers a wide range of products and services for the warehousing and industrial sectors. We specialise in pallet racking, mezzanine floors, racking repairs and SEMA inspections. We are the industry leader in managing multiple sites for inspections and repairs using the UK’s first and only dedicated racking maintenance portal – Theia.
How is your industry sector performing at the moment?
The last few years have seen many challenges in our industry from delayed projects following the Covid situation leading straight into price increases due to the war in Ukraine and a heightened demand in the marketplace for more storage. We have had to react daily to manage these situations and advise our clients on these issues, which may be the reason that we have emerged with a stronger order book year on year.
Which industry sectors are your customers in and which ones are growing fastest?
Our customer base is diverse and includes warehousing, retail, production and logistics service providers. The warehousing and logistics sectors continue to drive our growth and we don’t see any signs of this slowing down for 2024.
Which areas of your business are the best performing?
Our pallet racking sales have grown in 2023 by 46% from the previous year, making this our best performing area. However, we see our racking repairs division as our biggest driver for new business, driven by the launch of our new fully managed racking maintenance packages, powered by industry-first inspections and maintenance platform, Theia.
What sets your company apart as a supplier in your category?
We care. It’s that simple. Of course we have many unique services, and our access to the supply chain has allowed us to adapt to meet market needs. But I truly believe that the reason we have grown into the market leading company we are today is down to the outstanding service our staff deliver. Our team has a wealth of knowledge and a passion to be the best. It takes a long time for any business to find and develop the right people (and it can be a painful journey!) but once you’ve built a fantastic team around you, the sky’s the limit.
What are your most recent product innovations?
Our biggest success this year has been the launch of Theia, a racking inspection and maintenance portal built by us with our customers in mind. We were sick of seeing our customers struggle with pages and pages of long inspection reports, so we set out to create a digital platform to take this data and make it actionable. Theia allows our clients to manage the whole warehouse racking lifecycle from inspections to booking in repairs at the click of a button. Our clients now have vision of their whole estate, with full traceability from who noted the damage to which fitter carried out the repair. It’s been 3 years in the making, but it’s unlocked a whole new side of the business. Mind you, we still have plenty of ideas up our sleeves for 2024!
What are the major trends and developments affecting your category and your customers, and how are you responding?
The biggest trend has to be automation, and future-proofing for this with solutions like mezzanine floors to allow AMR use to be possible in the future. With the advancement in MHE automation we will also see this apply to other storage media. We have seen many new products enter the UK marketplace but these projects require massive investment and many just don’t get approval. Automation will be the biggest growth sector to come, but I still think we are a few years away from it being the norm and the industry needs to understand what a normal trading year looks like as the last few years have been anything but.
Can you tell us about any recent customer contract wins or projects and how you helped the customer meet their challenges?
We recently carried out a multi-million pound project for Rhenus Logistics at their award winning sites in Nuneaton. We were involved from day one, offering advice on design and project management. This would have been a normal job for us if it wasn’t for the situation arising in Ukraine. This brought many supply chain challenges, and considering the size of the project we had to react quickly to make sure our client did not suffer from vast increases in costs and completion times. Reacting quickly is one of our strong points, and despite the situation we were able to complete the 12 month project just 1 week over the estimated finish date.
How were business levels in 2023 compared to previous years?
2023 was our best year of trading to date in which we achieved over 40% in growth from our previous year. It’s a testament to the hard work of all our staff!
Can you tell us about any areas where you’re currently making technical advances e.g. safety, sustainability, environment?
We are always developing new advances for our industry but 2024 will see us launch a new product for racking protection called Rack Halo, along with another unique product that has gained amazing feedback and addresses one of our industries oldest problems. But you’ll have to wait for the launch as its still in the early development stages.
Do you invest in staff training and skills development?
The last two years have seen us invest heavily in our fitting teams. A new training program has been developed for us to attract and train new fitters and to date it’s been a great success. We have built professional and competent teams through this process and we know it’s made a big difference to our business along with gaining great feedback form our customers.
What is the company’s commitment to social responsibility?
This year has seen us sponsor many charities and sports which is something we take great pride in. This has included us sponsoring West Midlands Police football club along with helping Tim Wilde from Bellator achieve his dream of becoming the next champion. It’s nice to see like-minded people with a passion for what they do achieve their goals.
Do you help customers maximise the use of their existing warehouse space?
This is what our team do daily. We advise and specify new CAD layouts in order to make the most of space and improve operational efficiency. And it’s not always a case of starting from scratch. Many of our best jobs involve racking relocation using our award winning Reloskates, rack mobilisation equipment which allows us to move fully built pallet racking quicker and safer than any other company in the industry.
Will you be investing in your premises over the next 12 months?
As with our clients, we are constantly in need of more space. Luckily, we were able to build ourselves a 3 tier mezzanine in our current warehouse giving us lots of capacity for growth.
How future proof and flexible are your solutions?
Future proofing is something we are educating customers on all the time. There is a tricky path to tread as most clients see cost as their main driver, but often end up investing in products that only serve one purpose, leaving them unable to adapt to change. The amount of strip outs we carry out is quite amazing really! Buyers should be thinking ahead when making procurement decisions, and flexibility is worth more than a product that ends up in the skip.
How would you sum up your company in three words?
Passionate. Driven. Innovative.
PD INDUSTRIAL
0800 612 8025
Comments are closed.