Whittan, the UK’s leading manufacturer of storage solutions, has offered innovative products to design, create, deliver, install and maintain our flexible and future-proof products for over 70 years. Providing high-quality steel storage systems for businesses across the UK and Europe, Whittan offers bespoke solutions for every environment. We focus on expanding capabilities and maximising opportunities for our customers. Alan Kelly, Chief Operating Officer at Whittan speaks to Warehouse & Logistics News.
Chief Operating Officer at Whittan
What does your role involve on a day-to-day basis?
I’m responsible for the supply chain operations, including our factories, purchasing and logistics. My role varies on any given day, from ensuring we deliver against our customer service levels and key targets, to supporting our key strategic initiatives in the medium to longer term. As we deliver projects and services from initial design through to finished projects, service and repair, close collaboration and teamwork is required across all of Whittan’s main functions and I see it as part of my leadership role to ensure we have the correct processes, co-ordinated in the right way to achieve our goals together as an organisation.
How would you explain the Whittan Group’s Culture?
We’ve recently made some changes to our company values as we want to create the best culture for all of our staff. Our people are Whittan’s greatest asset, so the drive to define these new values that underpin our culture and highlight how amazing the people at Whittan are. The qualities of being adaptable, collaborative and trusted are already embedded within our culture, and we’re proud that we now have values that reflect that.
How does this culture assist your clients’ requirements?
Being flexible and responsive are two key aspects which deliver against our client’s needs. We know that many clients expect bespoke storage solutions and are challenged by demanding timescales and costs. Our ability to respond to rapid changes is essential along with having a problem-solving, can-do attitude to deliver against these. We’ve worked hard at becoming more collaborative across key functions to ensure we deliver complex solutions in a timely fashion.
Do you have direct contact with customers, and get involved developing solutions?
I meet with customers as much as possible and welcome feedback, whether to resolve any issues or, more importantly, understand what customers’ real needs are and discover better ways of delivering our services. Many customers have been involved in our factory visits which gives us a chance to talk about what we’re doing to consistently deliver higher levels of quality and service, along with explaining our key plans for the future and how we expect customers to benefit. One area where we have progressed over the last few years is in how we work across our functions to figure out how we can use Whittan’s broad range of capabilities to deliver a complex project or resolve a problem for a customer. This could be anything from providing specialist lockers to a state-of-the-art, automated warehouse solution.
What makes Whittan unique in your industry?
Every company should provide their customers with the best products and solutions, but it’s what is at our heart that makes us stand above our competitors – and that’s our people. As the largest UK manufacturer of storage solutions with over 70 years of experience, we’ve seen change after change within the industry. During those years, it’s meant that our teams have become some of the most knowledgeable and highly trained in the industry. This means they can optimise any solution on a case-by-case basis, and that’s what we’re truly about.
What sectors do these clients work in?
One of the interesting things about working at Whittan is the diverse range of sectors we serve, which includes construction, manufacturing, logistics through to retail and the public sector and anything in between. Needs and requirements can be quite different across varying sectors so it’s key to have the knowledge, flexibility and responsiveness to serve quite different customers in different circumstances.
How can your solutions help?
Solutions can vary, including storing malt whisky, providing specialist lockers for the police, fitting out museums and even submarines. We can find the right balance between storage optimisation, cost and safety regardless of project and environment. In addition, being the only UK-based manufacturer of warehousing solutions, we can offer the advantage of British made, on-shore supply to UK customers with the associated, lower carbon environmental impacts that this brings.
What new solutions are Whittan offering in the coming year and what opportunities will they bring to your customers?
In the coming months, we’re launching the most exciting change to our pallet racking product in over 40 years. With upgrades made to our Milton Keynes factory, we’re now ready to bring the evolved Link51 range to market and present even more options to our customers. The launch brings innovation and advancement to our offering and gives our customers more flexibility and choice to develop designs that are tailored to their specific requirements. It’s a fantastic step for Whittan and ensures our products and solutions are future-proofed for an ever-changing industry.
What are the biggest challenges facing Whittan Group and your industry?
With technology accelerating at a never-ending pace and end customers becoming much more demanding in terms of service and value for money, we are continually challenged to provide the most up-to-date products and services at competitive costs and with industry-leading, consistent levels of service. That’s why, over the last 4 years, we have invested in our people and equipment which will culminate with the launch of our most up-to-date new Link51 pallet racking product in 2025 which will conform to the very latest standards. Investment in new welding, rolling and laser technology will further enhance our overall quality and consistency of delivery as we go forward.
Tell us about a recent project Whittan Group were involved with.
We deliver many diverse and interesting projects over a large number of sectors. One area of growth is within the automated warehousing space, where we’ve delivered many quite spectacular projects within Europe and the UK (some within Europe, including rack clad buildings). These projects can deliver robotic storage solutions, which can typically contain over 30,000 pallet locations and can be over 40m high (which is the equivalent of a 14-storey building).
Whittan
01952 682251
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