Adding family values
August 1st 2008

In an industry that increasingly relies on call centres, Windsor Komatsu & Access is bucking the trend by investing in depots to provide local service.

Charlotte Stonestreet visited the company to find out more

According to a recent survey1 the UK has the lowest proportion of familyowned enterprises in Western Europe, just 8%, most of which are only one generation old. Little wonder then that Windsor Komatsu & Access, under the leadership of Gerry Burton and his two sons, Stephen and Jonathan, stands out in the UK materials handing sector. With Gerry overseeing the whole operation, Stephen has responsibility for the forklift sales side of the business, and Jonathan manages sales of aerial access equipment, as well as development of the company's depots.

Started in 1977 from humble beginnings, the company was founded on the maintenance and repair of forklifts, an aspect of the business that is still a top priority today. It was five years later in 1982 that Windsor became an official Komatsu dealer, constructing its first purpose builtpremises in Hull. Since then steady growth has resulted in the addition of a further seven sites at Scunthorp, Nottingham, Peterborough, Sleaford, Washington, Bradford and, most recently in 2007, St Helen's – making Windsor one of the biggest forklift distributorships in the UK.

Local depots In contrast with the many companies in the sector that have centralised operations and communicate with their customers through call centres, Windsor prides itself on the fact that the first port of call for its customers is always the local depot, not a remote head office. New customers are increasingly turning to Windsor as it provides an antidote to the faceless business practices adopted by of some of its competition in order to minimise overheads.

"It is the high level of service backup offered with the product that sets us apart from the competition. It's the local depots," says Gerry. "In many cases, even though forklift companies are national, their customers can't contact the local depot – it's just an 0800 number – whereas we are opening depots and providing local service, which gives them confidence. It's a partnership rather than a freephone number – that's where we score." Using this depotbased system means that when a customer has a service or maintenance requirement, the first person they speak to (usually the depot's service manager) definitely has thorough knowledge of the trucks and will quite probably know the site as well.

"In many cases, the service manager will be familiar with the customer through working with them on a long term basis.

Thanks to this and our IT system that accesses the relevant data in an instant, he will have a high level view of each case – but he won't necessarily know all the details," says Jonathan. "This is where he will talk to the service engineer, because he is the one that has the real in-depth knowledge. The service engineer will know all the equipment details, how the customer's site works and the type of problems that commonly arise there." To ensure this level of knowledge and communication between Windsor and its customers is maintained, the engineer to truck ratio is carefully managed. With the engineers playing such a pivotal role, the company views staff retention and training as paramount.

"Our engineers are made to feel part of the business, included, rather than just an employee," says Stephen. "This is reflected in the fact that our longest serving engineer, Ian Stone, has been with the business for almost 26 years. In fact, he won the Employee of the Year Award at this year's Fork Lift Truck Association Awards."

As well as retaining its engineers, Windsor also has a policy of actively recruiting apprentices and currently has around ten going though training with the FLTA, of which it is a member. This is not without its difficulties, however, and according to Stephen, finding candidates of a sufficiently high calibre can be hard work, despite a very strong career potential at the end of the training.

Of course, as well as maintaining morale, ensuring that all the engineers are bang up to date with their training means Windsor's customers can be confident they receive the best service. In addition to routine training on the Komatsu and JLG products, the engineers are qualified to work on explosion-proofed Pyroban products and have been certified by the FLTA to carry out Thorough Examinations.

Spare parts The company keeps stocks of all fast moving spare parts at each depot. The engineers also keep the most commonly required components in their vans. As a result, repairs seldom have to be put off while the appropriate part is delivered. Even in cases where Windsor does not have the part in stock, if an order is made by 5.00pm, it will be delivered from Komatsu's European stock holding facility in Italy the next working day.

In practical terms, this service structure means that Windsor, although most of its contracts specify a four hour call out period, is in many cases able to attend the customer's site for repairs in around two hours. As Gerry points out, the ability to act quickly to solve customer problems is vital in today's business environment where materials handling fleets have been honed to provide maximum productivity with the least number of trucks.

"Whereas at one time companies would have kept a spare truck on site, now there is no spare capacity in their fleets – so if a truck breaks down it is really important to have it up and running again as quickly as possible," he says. "If a truck's down and you can't get the service for 24 or 48 hours, then it's costing money in lost productivity." The importance of service provision is a message that the company strives to get across to its customers, and increasingly is the deciding factor in both retaining current business and winning new customers.

"One of the most frustrating things when we are bidding for new contracts is that people will simply look at the bottom line without taking into account the amount of money they will save through minimising downtime," says Jonathan. "Just because a proposal looks to be the cheapest option on paper, it doesn't mean that it will be the cheapest over a five year contract, especially if the service and maintenance are not up to scratch – and this a view that more and more of our customers are coming round to." Another factor that undoubtedly contributes to Windsor's success is its ability to provide a one-stop-shop for materials handling equipment and other associated products.

"As much as our primary range of products is the Komatsu equipment, anything outside of that we can also provide – sideloaders, Combilifts, Aisle-Masters for the narrow aisle, even warehouse cleaning equipment such as sweepers and scrubber driers," says Stephen. "Certainly on some of the larger sites now, we are finding that customers don't want lots of service providers – one for the scrubber drier, one for the forklifts, and another for the access equipment. In these cases, we can be there on site supplying all three types of equipment, giving a maintenance service that benefits from economies of scale." Aerial access equipment This complete-provider philosophy has been cemented by the fact that Windsor has recently become a preferred supplier of JLG aerial access equipment. This move has proved very successful, thanks to the natural customer overlap (many forklift users also have a need for aerial access equipment), the importance of health and safety while working at height and Windsor's concerted effort to market the JLG product.

"We've been out there talking to people, making them aware of their legal obligations, for example the Working at Height Regulations, making sure that they are up to date with their requirements in terms of equipment and pointing out that they need to ensure they are managing their health and safety as well as possible," says Jonathan.

So what next for the company? Well, in addition to continuing its highly successful partnership with Komatsu and building on the positives already realised from becoming a preferred supplier of JLG, the Burton family intends to carry on investing in land and constructing purpose built depots to further cement its service provision.

"I'm blowing our own trumpet here, but we work very well for Komatsu, and Komatsu work very well for us – and it's a partnership that is set to last," concludes Gerry.

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