The 9,000th Bendi articulated forklift truck recently came off the Translift production line in Redditch.
As an indication of the Bendi’s growing global appeal, the 9000th truck was ordered by one of their worldwide partners Goscor, who distribute the Bendi in South Africa. The truck, an AC B420 model was sold to Goscor’s customer Makro who have opened a new store in Alberton. As well as placing the order for the 9,000th Bendi, Goscor has just delivered its 100th vehicle to its customer BMG (The Bearing Man Group)
This takes worldwide sales pass the 16000 mark, which as Bendi MD Simon Brown points out, is not bad for a niche product “I remember one sceptical journalist writing a column back in the 1980’s which had the headline ‘The Truck bends but will the customer?’ well I think we have answered that question many times over! Maybe it’s been the early derision that’s driven me all these years but now the success of the Bendi dwarfs the VNA market it set out to compete in and challenges most other warehouse solutions globally”
Bendi has successfully broken into key market places throughout the world, including most notably, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and North America but its closer to home that has been the toughest nut to crack – Europe.
That is now changing with Bendi seeing a huge increase in demand for their products, and especially in France, where they recently won the prestigious “Coup de coeur MANUT’INNOVATIONS” award at Manutention 2012 materials handling exhibition held in Paris. The jury, made up of trade press journalists and an expert from CISMA, gave the INNOVATION award to the MINI BENDI and came just a month after the MINI walked away with the Asda innovation award. The jury recognized that the Mini Bendi was “easy to operate, safe for the pedestrian operator and would help reduce the problem of lack of storage space in warehouses and factories.”
Bendi Ramp Up Manufacturing and Introduce New Parts Centre
With worldwide orders flooding in and innovative new products in the pipeline, Bendi have expanded their presence on the Moons Moat Industrial Estate, Redditch with the recent acquisition of Unit 56 which has been used to house the new UK Parts facility.
The ongoing success of the British company, and its predicted expansion over the next 12 months is a massive boost for the Midlands and the UK manufacturing industry as a whole with significant investment in people and machinery already in place at the Redditch production plant.
“Like many manufacturers we have used the Eastern Europe and Asian manufacturing route to great success over recent years” explains Paul Overfield, Bendi Operations Director. “High local manufacturing costs and an incredibly fast growing market has meant we have had to source engineering partners with the right ability and the right cost base, however, the only way forward for our industry and our country is to bring it all back home. Britain now has a competitive cost base, all the required skills and (hopefully) a growing focus from the UK government to assist.”
That is why for the past 5 years, Translift Bendi has been focused on growing its UK manufacturing base to be capable of building all of its products for sale worldwide. That effort and success has paid dividends in Bendi’s sales with customers realising that they are dealing with a true manufacturing base.
Already with a highly skilled and dedicated workforce in the factory, Bendi have recruited new people as well as investing heavily in existing buildings and machinery. Paul Overfield concluded “Our careful but ambitious approach to the global market place has helped us reach a very exciting place whereby we are not only building our own business but helping to grow the UK economy though increasing manufacturing and predominately for export – the key to national growth.
Bendi has chosen IMHX 2013 to unveil two new products to the intralogistics market
Visitors at the International Materials Handling Exhibition (IMHX) in March 2013 will not be disappointed when they visit the Translift Bendi stand (19K100); the articulated truck specialist is using the exhibition as a major platform to launch two brand new products – the first true cold store cab for an articulated forklift truck and the world’s first order picking articulated truck.
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