Pirtek UK – Twenty years as number one
October 14th 2008

Pirtek UK Ltd, the country’s largest provider of emergency on-site hose replacements, this year celebrates 20 years at the forefront of the UK hydraulics business. And as Handling Storage and Distribution reports, it has been two decades of growth and innovation.

It is just 20 years since Pirtek UK threw open the doors to its first dedicated “hose centre”, located in London’s Park Royal. In the two decades that followed, the company’s network has swelled nationwide to include 92 Centres backed by a fleet of more than 400 fully-equipped mobile service workshops, making Pirtek as integral to the logistics business as the lift trucks the company’s hose replacement service supports.

In many ways, the Pirtek operation mirrors the logistics business it serves. National coverage is achieved via a network of strategicallylocated and responsive Centres, each backed by a fleet of mobile service vehicles that help the company deliver on its service promise of Anytime, Anywhere, ETA One Hour.

Each hose Centre is manned by an experienced and highly-trained team that is dedicated to providing the fastest possible solution to customers’ hose failure issues.

These Centres also host a trade counter that provides customers with access to the very latest in hydraulic hoses, hose reels and assemblies together with ancillary items such as oil spill kits. These items are also available via Pirtek’s comprehensive 400+ page catalogue which details the company’s huge 25,000 line item product line and helps customers make informed purchasing decisions. Pirtek reports that most of the items contained within the catalogue are available within two working days with more common items being readily available at the trade counters.

Equally important to the Pirtek success story is the fleet of 400+ mobile service workshops, each operated by a fully-qualified Mobile Sales and Service Technician (MSST).

Carrying an extensive selection of hoses, fittings and other ancillary items, this fleet annually clock up well in excess of 11 million kilometres per year on customer service calls and the distinctive Pirtek blue vehicles are a familiar sight at logistics facilities across the country.

Pirtek is far and away the number one provider in its chosen field and yet the company’s quest for innovation and evermore- responsive levels of customer service remains undaunted. The company has just opened a new custom-built Training Centre in Birmingham to ensure that the high standards for which Pirtek is renowned are maintained across the entire network. Even more significantly, Pirtek recently completed the implementation of a Ł6.0 million IT system called Pirtek Virtual Office (PVO) that, according to the company’s Alistair Wiggins, represents the most important step change in the company’s history.

“The company has undergone some truly radical changes in the past two decades and I don’t think any of us could have predicted the growth we have enjoyed when Park Royal first opened its doors in 1988,” concludes Alistair Wiggins. “But the one thing that has remained unchanged in all these years is a commitment to innovation, and a constant improvement in customer service. Those were the foundations of the business started in 1988 and they are still the driving force behind our business today.”

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