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MARKET REPORT CONCRETE LAYING, CUTTING & FINISHING


Positive Preparation


Alan Guthrie visits the latest depot opened by WH Surface Preparation UK Ltd which is steadily expanding its operation.


It’s not long before the subject of how technology can help business is raised when talking with Nick Forbes, Director of the specialist hirer, WH Surface Preparation UK. Founded in 2002 and headed by Nick and fellow Director, Mark Gater, the company recently opened its fourth depot in Dudley, complementing its first depot and head office in Risca, near Newport in South Wales. Its other locations are in Manchester and Milton Keynes, which opened in 2014 and 2016 respectively.


Workshop and Transport, with everything configured to ensure these run smoothly. Whichever local depot number a customer rings, all enquiries are answered centrally by head office and then passed to the most appropriate location, or externally to our mobiles devices via a cloud-based phone system In the event of a mains failure, when the system immediately re-routes the information.


“With the assistance of Yell, we obtain phone numbers with selective local codes which we could route to wherever we wish, but usually to Head Office. This allows us to monitor demand and helps to indicate areas where we might open a new depot. The caller doesn’t need to know where they are speaking to; they just want someone to deal with their enquiry. In most cases, people don’t ask for a specific item: they have a job to or a problem that they need a solution for, which our experienced team can provide. We can ask them to take a picture of their job and send it via email or WhatsApp on their phone to show us what they are doing. This can also help with fault-finding or troubleshooting.


The new Dudley depot opened in July.


The Dudley depot is located on an industrial estate and opened on 1 July. At 6,500ft2


it is the company’s biggest site to date. It also


has additional storage and office space upstairs with scope for a mezzanine floor. All branches are effectively clones with a similar layout, equipment fleet and facilities for maximum efficiency.


“The workshops are fitted out to our exact design, for example,” said Nick Forbes, “with a throughway door system and two work stations for small and large equipment. Also, the dedicated PAT testing area has a high-specification Seaward Clare Safecheck 8 tester (as at all depots) that prints a green ‘approved’ adhesive label which is also the PAT test certificate. We stick this on every electrical item when it goes on hire, so sites can instantly see it complies. We also strive to make sure the equipment has full test and runs after each hire and no quick services, with sometimes a 50% stripdown of the appliance due to the extreme environments they may have been used in.


Three core elements


“The business is based on three core elements that are like a three-legged stool, namely the Hire desk,


Each of the company’s depots is laid out in the same way. 48


“We decide which depot is best placed to supply the order, enabling staff at each location to get on with the job of processing and preparing it without unnecessary interruptions. We also ensure there is no geographical overlap with depots as they all work to meet the needs and demands of the business, so there is no ‘us and them’ approach. Drivers also are given time to fully demonstrate equipment and, where possible, take a videos of the user with the machine in operation that we can future use on our YouTube channel, and it gives information should they have any technical issues.”


Specialist machinery


WH Surface Preparation typically handles fewer deliveries per day than the average tool or plant hirer, but each can take longer owing


MOVING FORWARD WITH CONFIDENCE


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