UKSSH invests a further £150K in logistics and knowledge centre

UKSSH is well advanced in the development of a £150,000 Logistics and Knowledge Centre at its Midlands depot in Tamworth

❖ The company, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, bought the premises – the former Head Office of HAKI UK – in late 2020 and has so far spent in the region of £150,000 to fully refurbish the office block and create a classroom facility in the building. It also has plans to develop a fully enclosed training and demonstration area to provide customers with a fully integrated learning facility.

UKSSH has experienced continuous growth over the last 10 years and puts its success down to adapting and responding to customer needs: As its full name – UK System Scaffold Hire – suggests, it started life concentrating exclusively on the hire market, but now says that a significant part of its business includes the sales of HAKI equipment.

HIRE AND SALES

Gary Griffiths, MD of UKSSH, explains: “To be successful, a business needs to be flexible. Many of our customers use UKSSH for the first time as a means of discovering the true potential of HAKI Systems without the pressure to invest heavily in the product. As customers become increasingly aware of the advantages of HAKI and realise the number of applications that it is ideally suited to, they often make a strategic decision to purchase their own stock and prefer to do so through us because of their existing relationship with – and trust in – UKSSH. This means that our relationship with customers evolves over time, and we frequently undertake projects where a combination of ‘hire and buy’ provides the optimum solution for them.”

TRADITIONAL VALUES

UKSSH is proud to be a company with its roots firmly in system scaffold – and HAKI System Scaffold in particular. Gary Griffiths started his career with HAKI UK some 34 years ago: “1987 seems a long time ago, but back then HAKI instilled a business ethic that has stood the test of time. Working in all areas of the business meant that when I went out ‹on the road’, I could offer practical experience and advice and understood a customer’s needs. Knowing the theory is all well and good, but you must be able to employ it in real situations. Being on the road also taught me another valuable lesson: treat people as you like to be treated yourself. You can win customers with promises, but to keep customers you have to deliver. Customers must have confidence in their suppliers.”

It’s those lessons that are the driver behind UKSSH’s new Logistics and Knowledge Centre: “We work with top-class scaffold designers and invest time and money in helping our customers develop plans which optimise the strategic and financial benefits of HAKI Systems. Our Tamworth premises provide the perfect location to offer a hands-on training facility to enable a customer’s scaffolding team to get to know the product. We often do trial erections at Tamworth or at our Chesterfield site to ensure that customers know exactly what to expect when scaffold is delivered to site.”

UKSSH is evangelical in its commitment to system scaffold. It believes it is important to promote the strategic and cost advantages of HAKI Systems and to explain how adaptable it is – and it intends the new offices and depot to help it to spread the word. “We are relaxed about how customers use the facility – we can organise structured training, but we are equally happy for

BELOW: UKSSH can organise structured training, but are equally happy for customers to ‘drop in’ for an informal chat to discuss projects.

them to ‹drop in’ for an informal chat to discuss projects.”

Gary claims that his team at UKSSH has more years of HAKI expertise and experience under its belt than any other company in the UK, and he places an emphasis on quality rather than quantity: “We are a relatively small team, but all share the ‘can-do’ attitude that you need to succeed.”

INNOVATION IS THE KEY

UKSSH sees its future in delivering high-end solutions to projects where the real benefits of system scaffold deliver the biggest advantages both in terms of logistics and profitability, and it has seen its customer base develop primarily among those scaffold companies who share their vision.

The company’s expertise in specialist areas, such as temporary public access bridges and staircases, weather-protection solutions, suspended scaffold and heavy -duty supports, has resulted in a nationwide client base (including Ireland) and its decision to open the Tamworth depot is a strategic response to logistical demands. “Having a depot in the centre of the country means that we can respond even more efficiently for our clients in London, the Midlands and the south and puts us in pole position to service the growing demand generated by the work on HS2.”

DEVELOPING THEIR OWN PRODUCTS

However, while UKSSH extol the virtues of HAKI Systems, they are not blind to ways that they can be improved – and are not averse to taking on the challenge themselves.

Customer requests for a simple and effective security gate for the ubiquitous HAKI Stair Tower has been met by a product developed and designed in house by the UKSSH team. The Security Gate has proved its worth not just where HAKI Stair Towers are positioned next to public thoroughfares, but on publicaccess staircases, too. “The benefits of HAKI products speak for themselves, but if we can enhance those benefits even more, we’re not afraid to do so.”

Realising HAKI Systems massive time and cost advantages for building loading towers (HAKI offers an incredible 80% time saving compared to using tube and fittings), UKSSH also recognised that the existing loading tower gates were prone to damage, so they used the facilities at the fledgling Knowledge Centre to develop their own gate – the results can be seen by watching the video featured on UKSSH’s new website.

It seems that UKSSH’s investment in their new Knowledge Centre isn’t measured in the money spent on the refurbishment, but in their commitment to customer service – that early advice to Gary is still heard loud and clear: “You can win customers with promises, but to keep customers you have to deliver.”