With manufacturing back as the lion of the British economy, Bendi are flying the flag for the UK by ramping up production at its state of the art manufacturing facility in Redditch, West Midlands.
Over the past 10 years, Bendi have continued to manufacture in the UK but like all articulated truck providers, were forced to outsource some production in emerging markets due to the rising cost of UK build. Initially the cost benefits were appealing but Bendi realised that having control of UK manufactured product is essential, so with a bulging sales order book and international product costs rising, the decision was taken to bring home production to the UK.
UK Production
Faced with the challenge of developing the factory at Redditch, Simon Brown MD of Bendi explained:
“We invested heavily in buildings, machines and most importantly – people to accommodate the new products and to allow for increasing volume in existing lines. The increase in orders both here in the UK and in Export sales has thrown up some challenges but they are nice problems to have. We already had a highly skilled and dedicated workforce in the factory so to create even more skilled UK jobs has been very pleasing for everybody at Bendi, especially when considering they are predominantly for Export – the key to national growth.”
Bendi has not only established its reputation as the pioneer and innovator in its field but is recognised today internationally as the global provocateur of the ‘warehouse revolution’ – the war on wasted space!
Originally the Bendi was invented to reduce the number of trucks required; however, with pressures on ever greater financial and operational efficiencies in their business, customers were soon demanding additional performance requirements: smaller aisles, taller lifts and heavier weights to those lift heights. The Bendi has evolved into a high performance warehouse truck that can operate outside and store pallets in very narrow aisles, more efficiently and cheaper than conventional machines.
As the UK economy continues to grow, so to does the shift in commerce from high street to the web, which has changed the distribution requirements from B2B to B2C, and put ever-increasing demand on operational efficiencies. Consumers expectations to ‘click and receive’ within a few days mean that the ratio of picking in warehouses is increasing exponentially which has necessitated a need for a change in the warehouse concept; and the introduction of Bendi’s latest product – the award winning Bendi Order Picker.
Winner of the prestigious FLTA Innovation Award, the Bendi Articulated Order Picker is the first truck designed to do “self replenishment”. With two pallet handling locations, the operator can pick and replenish with out the need to call for another machine, thus meaning the Bendi Order Picker can take advantage of its space saving aisle performance resulting in a near 50% reduction in wasted space and a more efficient picking operation.
Operating efficiently in aisles as small as 1.6m and lift to heights over 12m, there is now a Bendi to suit all applications and budgets.
For more information please contact the Translift team here.
