Pirtek Britain's fastest emergency hose replacement service and more...
News release date: Tuesday 2 January 2007
Warehouse & Logistics News - First of all, Alistair, what types of warehouse equipment and other materials handling machines do you supply replacement hoses for?
We supply hoses for warehouse equipment and mechanical handling machinery, from a BT Rolatruk pallet truck to a side shift hose on a large conveyor: any hose or hydraulic part on any forklift. We provide compatible parts for all European, Far Eastern and North American equipment, and all makes and models. In total we offer over 4,000 different fittings and cover all major thread types.
WLN - What stock do you carry on your vans?
Every van carries a range of hoses, fittings and tools, and our service technicians can identify the failed parts in the hose assembly and cut a new hose and fit it to the customer's requirements. We can fix over 95% of breakdowns on site from van stock.
WLN - What's the difference between the hoses you supply and the items originally fitted?
Every hose we supply carries a Pirtek part number, but the integral parts and key components are to a similar standard. Most hoses comply to specific international standards - SAE100 R1AT or SAE100R2AT or 100R7, the generic standards for hoses.
WLN - Where are your replacement parts made?
Most hydraulic hoses and other parts we supply in the UK come from Europe.
WLN - As new models appear, how do you work with OEM suppliers and component manufacturers to develop compatible new parts?
The OEM customer defines parameters for new models - lift height, side shift and speed of working, but we still need to draw stock from hose manufacturers. Standards tend to be generally consistent, but occasionally new innovations appear, particularly in the 'W&L' market, which are quicker and easier to fit. We work closely with the component manufacturers to develop new fittings. We liaise with the OEMs and hose manufacturers and closely monitor new parts.
WLN - Do you have different engineers for different products or can each one cover the whole range you service?
Our engineers cover the entire range. A Pirtek engineer starts work at 8am, and could repair a refuse truck by the roadside then go to a B& Q depot to fix a forklift, then to a quarry to fix an excavator followed by a plastic injection moulding facility. The range of hose assemblies is enormous, but our guys know every hose and every type of fitting.
WLN - Do you have a dedicated training centre?
We have a training centre in Birmingham, offering a 'boot camp' for beginners, City & Guilds in Hose Assembly, refresher courses and product training as required.
WLN - What's the benefit to customers of dealing with Pirtek rather than the original part supplier?
The biggest benefit is our speed in fitting replacement parts. We significantly reduce downtime from a 5 hours wait for the OEM or distributor's engineer. We have developed an unrivalled process which really is as easy as 1-2-3. Our engineer will arrive within the first hour, have the replacement part fitted within the second hour, and wherever possible, the job will be invoiced within three hours. If a warehouse truck's hose assembly fails, you have three options. Your mechanic can remove the hose and find a shop to repair or remake it. You can phone the forklift supplier and wait for their engineers. If they don't have the exact part, you can wait even longer for your machine to be back in action. Or, you can phone Pirtek.
WLN - How many different items do you list?
We list 25,000 parts as available nationally. Most of our service centres carry 8,000, and each engineer carries 4,000.
WLN - Do you see this variety of products broadening?
We add 2,000 items to the total list every year, but they tend to be technically advanced and 'extreme' applications, not core items.
WLN - How many live customers do you have in the W& L sector?
We have 4,500 live accounts ordering once a month or more, from OEMs to reseller distributors and end users. Each centre has around 2,500 accounts, of which 500 are active at any time. Our national accounts include Linde, BT Rolatruc and Barloworld. At local level every Pirtek Counter serves local forklift distributors and rental operations.
WLN - How do customers qualify as national accounts?
They qualify by spending over £50,000 per year across more than one part of the UK. We can bill them as they wish - centrally, or locally.
WLN - How long from call out until an engineer comes?
As mentioned, we quote 90 minutes from the customer's call to completion, any time of day or night. We have mainland UK Pirtek centres from Plymouth to Inverness and give an ETA of one hour from the call, but our average time to arrive on site is 47 minutes. We also have seven centres in Eire and one in Belfast.
WLN - What's your first time fix rate like? What do you charge for callouts?
Our first-time fix rate is 95%. Our call out scale depends on the nature of the customer and the scale of the operation.
WLN - What's the latest time of night your engineers attend callouts?
We're available around the clock. It's a true 24/7 service, 365 days a year, without exception.
WLN - When and where was Pirtek founded?
Peter Duncan founded Pirtek in Australia in 1980, to offer local customers in Metropolitan Sydney a rapid hose replacement service, the first of its kind. We were at the heart of the original growth in mobile services.
WLN - Who owns it now?
Peter Duncan still owns the operation in Australia, South East Asia, New Zealand and South Africa. We have franchise operations in the UK and Ireland, France, Germany, Benelux, and the USA
WLN - When did you first set up here? How big is your worldwide turnover?
We launched in the UK in 1988, and now have a worldwide turnover of £180m.
WLN - Is your UK turnover growing, and at what rate? What's driving it?
We have a £60m turnover in the UK, growing 10% pa, driven by increasing use of hydraulics in all industries. You can't lift more than 20kg per person now under UK law, so people are using mechanical devices, many involving hydraulics.
WLN - What proportion of your UK turnover is in the Warehouse & Logistics sector? What other industry sectors are you active in?
15% of our turnover is 'W&L,' Material plant and construction 20% and Waste & Refuse 10%. The rest is in such areas as automotive, transportation, marine, agriculture, mining and quarrying, rail and manufacturing.
WLN - Is W&L a growing area of your business?
Yes, it is growing, particularly as more customers become health and safety conscious and use mechanical devices for lifting.
WLN - Do you publish case studies of major service contracts?
Yes, we feature customer case studies in our quarterly newsletters, covering different areas of our business.
WLN - How do people find the nearest Pirtek trade centre?
They can phone 0800 38 24 38, or visit www.pirtek.co.uk and click on the map. We also promote our services through our catalogues.
WLN - How often do you publish your catalogue? How many items are in the latest one, and what product areas does it cover?
We publish them every 18 months. The latest one featured 25,000 parts - hoses, fittings, adaptors, pneumatics, couplings, seals and valves. All our vans carry copies, and give them out to customers.
WLN - Do you own all your service centres, or are they franchises?
They're all franchisees.
WLN - What training do franchisees get?
Franchisees get initial training on how to operate, recruit and manage their franchise, including admin, sales and marketing.
WLN - What marketing support do you give them?
We supply literature, catalogues, web sites, national branding and advertising and exhibitions, but the franchisee has to be out there getting the brand message among the customers locally.
WLN - What kind of people are you looking to recruit as franchisees?
Ideally we want people with management experience. They needn't be machinery resellers, but knowledge of the logistics industry would help.
WLN - What proportion of your vans cover 'W&L' customers?
All our engineers and vans call on 'W&L' customers in their area, along with the other customers. 70-80% of our W&L work comes through equipment dealers, especially for hired kit, but we're also happy to talk to end users.
WLN - You put your 400th van on the road in May. How many more vans are you adding per annum?
We're adding 20 new vans per year, or 5%. In size, no one comes close: our nearest competitor has 40 vans.
WLN - How much do you spend on your fleet?
That's difficult to answer, as it's down to the franchisees. The 'on the road' cost is approaching £40,000 per vehicle, and they're replaced every four years. Every franchise typically has four vans.
WLN - Do you offer a technical advice service?
We offer technical advice on line, which either franchisees or customers can access: typically end users call their local branch for advice. All enquiries go through the franchisees and are dealt with locally.
WLN - You've introduced the 'Pirtek Information Technology Solution.' What does it involve?
We use 'PITS' to email job details to the service vans via their PDAs and advise them what to expect on site. They submit health and safety assessments; get job prices agreed; collect electronic signatures; email information back to the branch and generate real time invoices within minutes.
'PITS' means customers know the cost of the breakdown quickly, and we have a record of what's happened during the job. The Health & Safety risk assessment via the PDA also keeps our people safe: we won't let them go ahead with the job unless conditions are satisfied.
WLN - What does your role involve as Business Development Director?
My role includes introducing new products and services, and recruitment of new franchisees and opening new centres. We had five new franchises and one new centre this year - next year's target is two more centres, and further improvements in product quality. We already meet all relevant industry standards, but want to improve further.
WLN - How do you ensure quality standards?
The key is our product quality, which is independently audited. We comply with three major standards, SAE, ISO and DIN, plus subsidiary standards such as marine and MoD.
WLN - Your Mike Jordan British Touring Car Championship motor racing sponsorship has gained Pirtek a great deal of coverage this year, including our front cover in September. What inspired you to sponsor motor racing?
In Australia in 2000 we sponsored a car in the Supercar Series (V8s), which was very successful. Like Australia, a lot of our UK customers are into motor racing, and this lets us spend a day with them at their local circuit, where they can see the cars up close, meet the drivers and enjoy a great day out. It also lets our franchisees do the same with their customers, and gets them talking about the race for the next month.
WLN - How much are you spending in total on marketing activity? In total we spend around 3% of turnover on marketing, including the BTCC activity, national advertising, the catalogue and our sponsorship of the Sheffield Tigers speedway team.
WLN - What do you see as the biggest external factors that are likely to impact on demand for your products and services, especially in the 'W&L' sector?
As mentioned, the increased emphasis on Health & Safety is having a huge influence, particularly the restrictions on what people can lift manually. Second, care in the workplace is now a bigger issue generally. When hydraulics fail, spilt oil can mean injuries. We don't just fix the hoses: we offer a full clean up operation, and all our vans carry oil absorbent products. In a huge spill, we advise customers about how to clear up.
WLN - Finally, where do you see Pirtek UK's 'W&L' service going from here?
As our understanding grows of the W&L sector's requirements, we will launch more products for the industry. We have a dedicated W&L sector manager, Paul Dunlop, who leads our work in this area.
At present we reckon we have 50% of the available on-site 'W&L' replacement market overall, so that business could double. The rest of the market - Original Equipment - is worth £600m, and we'll be developing OEM supply products in the future.