March 17, 2008 - By meeting the needs of the oil, fishing, distilling and utilities industries, the Scottish materials handling industry provides increasingly specialist products and service support. Briggs Equipment, the UK’s sole national Cat® Lift Truck distributor, has been operating out of Livingston near Edinburgh for over 14 years, and understands the importance of building a partnership with a supplier and service provider who can deliver both product and service diversification.
“Historically, a service engineer in the materials handling industry would service a small range of lift trucks usually from a single manufacturer,” says Grant Lockie, regional manager for Briggs Equipment in Scotland. “The humble engineer was contracted by a supplier who concentrated on its product portfolio only. Today changes to the overarching service industry and the evolution of the materials handling sector means that suppliers need to proactively offer a range of handling equipment and be able to service what they sell.
To remain competitive, it is critical that a leading materials handling supplier can offer a bespoke handling solution and provide lift truck products as well as auxiliary equipment. Increasingly, customers also recognise the economic and administrative benefits of outsourcing a diverse range of equipment and service support from one supplier.
“At Briggs Equipment, we support major customers in the oil, fishing, drinks and utilities sectors,” continues Grant Lockie. “In order to offer a bespoke materials handling solution, we supply a comprehensive range of equipment from Caterpillar lift trucks, but also have the ability to source and service equipment from a range of manufacturers. For example, we supply and maintain a utilities company with fork lift trucks, diggers, quad bikes, and trailers.”
Importantly, this product offering is no good if a supplier does not have an extensive network of trained engineers who can work in a variety of demanding applications. To be able to service what you sell properly, has never been so important. Few Scottish–based equipment suppliers can meet this challenge and customers should look closely at supplier servicing credentials before they sign on the dotted line.
Briggs Equipment now has one of the largest networks of fully trained service engineers in Scotland. All service calls are routed through Briggs’ Livingston branch where experienced customer teams direct the call to the nearest mobile engineers who are then deployed to site. The purpose-built site has its own workshop facility with a dedicated team of workshop engineers and a fleet of 30 short term rental machines on stand by. Across its Scottish customer base, Briggs monitors closely fleet uptime and first-time-fix statistics, which often exceed 95 percent.
“People (engineers and customer account teams) and their experience and expertise are a precious commodity in the materials handling industry and Briggs Equipment’s continual investment in ongoing engineer training ensures that we can meet the needs of an ever diversifying Scottish materials handling industry,” adds Grant Lockie.
* Briggs Equipment is located at stand number 33 during SHD Scotland at the SECC, Glasgow from 22-23 April 2008.
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Briggs Equipment UK
Briggs Equipment UK Ltd is a leading materials handling service provider and sole distributor of Yale Materials Handling products in Great Britain. Providing a wide range of equipment for a broad customer base, Briggs provides innovative, tailored and cost effective solutions on a nationwide basis. With its headquarters and national support centre in Cannock, Briggs people assist and advise in the delivery of long term solutions that enable customers to develop more efficient and results driven businesses.
Media contact:
Tiffany Clowes
Changeworks Communications
T. + 44 (0) 1785 247588
E.
Company Contact:
Scott Bullock
Briggs Equipment
Orbital Way
Cannock
WS11 8XW
T: 01543 430 455
W: www.briggsequipment.co.uk
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