Fort Vale reflects on a strange year

UPSIDES, DOWNSIDES

REFLECTIONS • IT HAS BEEN A STRANGE YEAR FOR ALL OF US, BUT WHAT WILL 2021 LOOK LIKE? FORT VALE EXPLAINS HOW IT ADAPTED TO THE PANDEMIC AND WHAT IT EXPECTS NEXT YEAR

AS THE WORLD lurches towards the end of a tumultuous year, all eyes are on 2021. Will it herald a new, Covid-free dawn? Will the promised delivery of multiple vaccines enable the world to get back on its feet? Will trade exhibitions ever be the same again? Will Leeds United challenge for the Premiership this year? HCB spoke to Graham Blanchard, global marketing director of Fort Vale, to get his insights into the business environment.

HCB: How has Fort Vale managed as a company during 2020? What have been the difficulties you have faced? The highs and lows of the year?

GB: Obviously, the pandemic and its associated lockdowns have caused logistical problems for many companies - and Fort Vale is no exception - but we have found that our sound company structure has enabled us to adapt swiftly to all the problems thrown at us. Although it has been a challenging year, we believe that we are well-placed to move forward with a full range of products and new equipment launches in 2021.

With regard to the various ‘highs and lows’ of this year, I think that they may be similar to those experienced by many companies, but we feel that we have addressed all the issues thrown at us with a fair degree of success.

For Fort Vale, there were several areas that were of prime importance: maintaining our workforce’s health and jobs; keeping our customers supplied with the stock they wanted, when they wanted it; maintaining our growth in newer markets; and our continued investment in R&D.

It was vital for us to keep our workforce safe, so the first thing we did when lockdown was first announced in mid-March was to make the factory and offices Covid-secure (social distancing measures, working from home, regular sanitising programme, in-house track and trace, alterations in shift patterns and break times) to ensure that employees were as safe as possible in the workplace and that the risk to the business in case of a contracted case did not result in the closure of our factory. As a result, our workforce was kept safe, and while there was the odd case of transmission, no-one’s health was seriously impacted.

The UK’s furlough scheme ensured that we could retain staff without making collective redundancies and allowed us to bring our highly trained workforce straight back into the workplace as orders have increased. This has been a key factor in increasing production at a fast pace, whereas the usual methods of having to go through a recruitment drive and training of new staff can take time.

The hastily introduced travel restrictions and subsequent cancellation of events meant that contact with customers changed, and the use of digital technology became a key factor in communications at home and abroad. This meant that the business landscape had altered. The methods used to keep in touch (Zoom etc.) have in some cases been around for years, but without any significant pick-up, and it will be interesting to see if these are still being used once the pandemic is finally over.

I believe that personal, face-to-face contact with customers and suppliers will always be an essential part of everyday business, but I also feel that we have perhaps reached a high-water mark with regard to business travel, and that technology still has a vital role to play in future business communication - but only time will tell.

We managed to maintain and encourage further growth is several key markets - rail, road and process plants for example, but that was balanced by the depressed activity in the tank container market. We felt it was vital to keep up with our continued investment in R&D - this has always been a key factor in our success at Fort Vale, so we did not tone down our commitments to continuous improvement - even with all the difficulties encountered with the downturn in orders from our core market of tank container equipment, cashflow issues faced with customers, supply chains being affected by lockdowns etc.

We are very aware that our continued development and innovation of products

is what marks us out from competitors - and I see no reason to change that!

HCB: So, what’s the story with Leeds United?

GB: I have been a massive Leeds fan all of my life, and in 2020 we qualified for the Premier League after an absence of 16 years. It was a special moment in a period that will unfortunately be remembered as the ‘year of staying in’ - a personal high point in a sea of lows. It’s bound to be a tricky season after so long in the lower division, but I have high hopes for the future, and hope (along with everyone else) to be able to attend a game at some stage soon!

HCB: And what does the next 12 months hold for Fort Vale?

GB: As I mentioned earlier, we’ve gone to great lengths to maintain our investment in R&D, and the results will become apparent in the New Year. I can’t say too much, but we will be extending the range of our European and American rail products as well as improving our range of PFA-lined equipment for hazardous cargoes. We’ll also be launching new equipment for the IBC market - which is very exciting - and bringing some new powder tank equipment to the market.

In early 2021, we will be launching a new e-commerce website for spares. Initially, this will only be for the UK market, but we will be rolling out this service to mainland Europe, serviced via the Fort Vale BV office, later in the year.

We are also looking forward to being able to exhibit again in 2021. The last nine months has shown us what can be achieved with the right mindset, and incredible advances have been made. I’m not just talking about our industry here: there has been astounding participation between industries and disciplines in all walks of life in 2020. We should not lose sight of the fact that a lot of good has come from this pandemic in terms of countries and continents working together for a common cause.

It’s been an eventful year for all of us, interspersed with periods of uncertainty, but I think a lot of companies will be itching to get back out into a more traditional marketplace again - many people just want to get back to some semblance of normality - but it’s also worth pointing out that the things we used

CAREFUL SANITARY PRECAUTIONS HAVE ALLOWED FORT

VALE TO KEEP UP PRODUCTION, INCLUDING RAIL BALL VALVES (OPPOSITE), BOTTOM DISCHARGE VALVES FOR TANK CARS (TOP) AND T-PIECE ASSEMBLIES FOR to take for granted, such as long-haul travel, may have to be re-assessed in the near future.

I enjoy meeting customers and potential new clients, as well as forming new commercial partnerships, so hopefully the result of all this hard work will be the resumption of some business events, though I think we will have to wait until 2022 before there is a full calendar of exhibitions again - whether we will all still be wearing masks we will have to wait and see! But, masks or no masks, I’m looking forward to it. www.fortvale.com