Targeting growth
May 1st 2011

With recent product launches plus more to come in 2011, Sara Loading Bay Specialists is poised for growth in both doors and in the loading bay

With a number of recent product launches under his belt, Sara Loading Bay Specialists operations director Ed Willks, is planning further activity this year. The company has been supplying high speed doors for 26 years, and from a start in that sector has diversified into loading bay equipment. Sara's parent company is US industrial door giant Albany Door Systems.

Sara launched a machine protection door at Southern Manufacturing in February, which allows users to boost safety in an automated environment where robots and people mix. The company also introduced a clean room door at the tail end of last year. The Sprint Cleanroom Door was the first door to be tested by the Fraunhofer Institute for clean room suitability, and certified to EN ISO 14644-1 Class 5, claims Wilks.

"This allows us to go into the cleanroom market backed up with the proof that the door will do what it is supposed to do. It has given us a niche in what is a growing part of the market," he adds.

While keeping his cards close to his chest,Wilks promises there will be further product launches by the third quarter of this year.

He is also looking at wider industry developments and assessing how they may affect the loading bay solutions provided by Sara. For example, the Government is currently consulting on new, longer lorries.

"We're aware of it and if necessary we will review our yard criteria and how that will relate to longer vehicles," he says. "It may be problematic. At the moment there are companies designing turntables for use in very tight yards. If vehicles add a couple of metres that may render a solution redundant." One area of distribution that has already provided loading bay challenges is the increasing use of double deck trailers. This is not an issue that has fazed Sara, as Wilks explains. "We've just been looking at a job in Wellingborough and the client wanted to redevelop an existing building for his range of single and double deck vehicles.We've been able to equip a couple of existing bays with external loading pods that allow the use of double deck vehicles in the facility without major civil works." The pod is an insulated or uninsulated clad structure outside the main envelope of the building, which will contain a scissor lift or a dock leveller, which allows for a range of unloading heights and permits the client to use a variety of vehicles.

"It's important to think of the range of the vehicles coming in," cautions Wilks who says not all double deck trailers are created equally.

"Double deck vehicles are different enough often to need different solutions, so we take the time to talk this through with a customer and look at their general loading operations and where they are having difficulty." An example of Sara offering a solution to a specific situation is a job for 3663 in Kent. The loading bays needed to accommodate a range of double deck vehicles and curtainsiders as well. "We were able to offer a sideloading solution for them. So if the bays are full and a curtainsider arrives they can still offload and use the building to its full capacity." Sara prides itself on being a total package company, offering initial consultation, design expertise, installation, and lifelong service for many clients. Sara also works with a service partner for some areas of the country.

"We spend a lot of time training our staff.When innovations are made we take our engineers out and show them the products.

For example, we recently introduced a new set of control panels, and we took engineers off the road so that if they find themselves in a live environment they are comfortable with the product," adds Wilks.

Sara has recently merged offices with Industrial Door Systems Southern, a subsidiary owned by the company.Wilks believes this offers better service to customers, with his team having access to engineering experience and excellence, without having to make a phone call.

The company offers up to a five year warranty on its loading bay equipment dependent on approved companies providing an element of service over the time period. Sara also operates a fit and forget policy for parts of its range of high speed doors, dependent on Sara carrying out servicing and excluding misuse and accidental damage.

"When customers buy on the fit and forget scheme and three years later the product needs a new motor, then we would replace the motor, check the door and that would be covered."

More articles from Sara LBS Limited: