Hyster and Combilift Trucks in New Briggs Deal for Bradfords Group
29th May 2018
The Bradfords Group is boosting its fleet with over 170 new MHE units supplied by Briggs Equipment. The new fleet covers 61 sites on which the groups’ businesses; Bradfords Building Supplies Ltd, Snows Timber Ltd and Crendon Timber Engineering Ltd operate and consists of a range of Hyster forklifts, Combilift sideloaders / multi directional forklifts and JCB Teletruks.
The Bradfords Group has gone from strength to strength and has ambitious growth plans for the next five years. This significant investment in the new fleet will support the growth through improved productivity and the tools to manage the whole fleet with a complete transparency that was previously unavailable, in turn driving cost efficiency for the group.
The two companies have similar values and missions, which has made the introduction and development of relationships at every level of the business seamless. Briggs has also been making significant investments in its own resources and systems which will in turn strengthen the support it can provide to customers such as the Bradfords Group.
What reinforces the partnership is Briggs’ capability to provide the full materials handling solution; from unparalleled account management through a dedicated team of experts, to flexible asset financing using the in-house solution BE Finance, the provision of BE Portal as an effective fleet management tool and full engineer backup from a team of over 600 highly skill mobile engineers.
The privately owned group signed the ten year contract hire agreement for 108 new Hyster trucks, 71 Combilift machines and two new JCB Teletruks. Additional features designed to improve site safety were introduced, including Pedestrian Awareness Lighting (PAL), high visibility masts and a maximum speed of 5mph as a pre-set condition on the trucks.
With a fleet of this scale, and spread over so many sites, it was previously very time consuming for the group to have complete transparency on maintenance and usage of the fleet. The introduction of Briggs’ online fleet management tool BE Portal, means the group now have complete visibility on all aspects of the fleet from group, company and site level, enabling them to make informed business decisions on their new assets.
Martin Caddick, Head of Transport for the Bradfords Group commented, “After a rigorous procurement process Briggs Equipment offered the best all round package tailored to suit the individual needs of the Bradfords Group, incorporating Bradfords Building Supplies, Snows Timber and Crendon Timber Engineering. The package worked for us from not only a finance point of view, but just as importantly taking service and back up into account from the moment the deal was signed.
“This investment will allow us to achieve our MHE uptime target of 99%, delivering greater Customer Service and Improved Efficiencies, all while including industry leading safety benefits for our Bradfords Group team and customers alike.
“Image and presentation is crucial to the Bradfords Group. With this in mind, Briggs worked with us to ensure each piece of MHE will be delivered in our Group colour scheme, and each brand being clearly represented by its own individual livery.”