Tracked Carriers has just added Sunbelt as a client.
A Material World W
hile lead times have been challenging for many importers and manufacturers
of material handling equipment, Tracked Carriers has been able to maintain a steady build rate of its compact all-terrain machines. “We have been flat out all year,” says company founder and director, Tom Cannon.
“We have exported the clear majority of our machines, but we have picked up quite a few UK orders recently, which we are delivering at the moment. We have just delivered our first two machines to Sunbelt, which was exactly where I envisaged our market. The first big player has finally taken some machines. With any luck there will be more coming through soon.
Lifting and shifting goods is one of the oldest problems known to man. Dan Jenkins looks at some of the latest solutions to this perennial challenge.
“Sunbelt is the first general purpose hire company to take our products; all of our other customers are lifting specialists, such as AMC, Cobra Lifting and Lift Assist. They know what they are doing with the machines and can provide a good hand over to the end user.
“The general hire side is different; it will be a good test because it will show up any weaknesses in the product when they are being used and abused by general contractors rather than used by lifting specialists.”
Managing the supply chain remains key. “We are ordering a year ahead at the moment so hopefully that will prevent supply chain from being an issue,” adds Cannon. “The supply chain issues are still there; you just have to order further ahead. We have got orders through to next year and are currently quoting about 16-week lead times, but our goal is to reduce those even further.”
Product availability The Armorgard E-Kart.
Armorgard has remained immune to the supply chain and logistics challenges faced by some importers. Bruce Mitchell, the company’s sales director, says: “All of our
“However, a key to its success this year has been availability. One of its major competitors could not get its US product into the UK for a considerable amount of time.
products are made in the UK or Europe and we keep our 65,000sq ft warehouse well stocked. Our service level is, if you order before 3pm you get it delivered the next day – and we have maintained that standard over the past two or three years.”
HSC Group has enjoyed success with its 3m Muba beam lifter. Unlike most similar products, this has no lifting cables, instead using a simple screw mechanism similar to an Acrow prop. The user manually winds the handle to lift and lower. A compact unit, it will fit through gaps as narrow as 73cm. Two can be used together to increase lifting capacity from 600kg to 900kg. The lifter is stackable when folded and will fit in the boot of most estate cars.
“The beam lifter is not a new product for us but is growing in popularity,” says John McGhee, group marketing manager at HSC Group. “It is very competitive on price compared to other material lifts, which always helps.
32 Executive Hire News - Nov/Dec 2022
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