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Executive Report: Birchwood charges ahead Alan Guthrie visits Birchwood Products in Nottingham to find out about its latest launches targeted at the hire industry and the company’s plans for further growth. EHN last featured Birchwood Products in depth back in October 2002. Since then, the specialist hire industry supplier has continued its impressive growth, having achieved £20m turnover last year. In March 2005 the company moved to a large site to the northwest of Nottingham, occupying 60,00ft2 on a 15-acre site close to the M1 motorway, where 85 staff are based. The business has established several brands, including Garden Master grounds care machinery, Defender power and lighting equipment, Rhino industrial heaters and coolers, Van Vault mobile security containers and Terra pumps. Another brand is Scruffs workwear, launched in 2003 as a retail line. Since then, Birchwood has allocated significant resources to raising the Scruffs profile, to the extent that it now turns over £5m annually. Now, however, the company is launching a host of new products aimed squarely at the hire market. The Garden Master range has been reappraised to offer a dedicated line-up for professionals. Newcomers include the GMFM flail mower with a 32-blade rotor for clearing brush and scrub. The GMSG 9 stump grinder has eight hardened carbide teeth that can deal with hardwood, while the new GMLS 5 lawn scarifier is designed for large-scale moss and thatch removal. Other products in the existing line-up include rotary mowers, a brushcutter, hedge cutter, turf cutter, tiller, grass trimmer, cultivators and a backpack blower, featuring Honda petrol engines. “Terrific hire opportunity” “Garden Master represents a terrific opportunity for hirers to target the expanding grounds care market,” contends Birchwood’s Marketing Manager, Chris Mellor-Dolman. “Last month, we held hands-on demonstration days throughout the country, at which hirers could try the equipment. The response was tremendous and we took a huge number of orders.” New to the Defender portfolio is the Uplight V2, a modified version of the innovative self-righting fluorescent lamp that was the HAE Product of the Year in 2002. The polycarbonate light stick can now be separated from the base and suspended from ceilings and scaffolding. A moulded rubber foot also allows it to be placed horizontally on a bench or on the ground. Birchwood believes that the product’s robust qualities and coolness in operation make it suitable for use in event hire as well as by construction professionals and tradesmen. The Defender Spider Ball is a neatly styled four-way electrical distribution box, featuring a stackable circular polycarbonate housing. It comes with 3m of cable and is IR44 rated. Finished in high-visibility yellow, it helps avoid tangled wires on site. New halogen heater Late last year, Birchwood acquired the full design, production and sales rights to the Wolfe Thermo Quartz infrared halogen heater, now re-branded as the Rhino TQ3. “The Thermo Quartz has always been a particularly attractive heater,” contends Anthony Smith, Birchwood’s Managing Director. “However, it needed to sell in much larger volume to secure appealing prices and to be accepted in the market. We already have sales demand that outstrips our current production capacity of our Rhino 3 heater. The TQ3 will give us the increased production we require to meet our customers’ needs.” He adds that Europe and the US are target markets for Rhino products. Also new to the Rhino line-up is the high-capacity Crowd Cooler fan, which has an extending head, plus a new fume extractor, more details of which will appear in a future issue of EHN. Particularly innovative is Birchwood’s new Battery Bank, which enables power tool batteries and mobile phones to be charged unattended, safely and tidily. The slim steel cabinet comprises ten lockers, each with a two-gang 13A RCD-protected power point. The doors are secured on insertion of a returnable £1 coin and each vented locker is individually numbered. An optional step-up transformer enables the Battery Bank to be powered from a 110V supply. Interest has already been expressed in the product by several national hirers. The Battery Bank is made to the same high-strength specification as Birchwood’s anti-theft Van Vault products, which now have a dedicated website (www.vanvault.co.uk). Latest additions to the range include the Mobi, which can be moved easily between sites and secured at fixed ‘docking points’ at different places or in various vehicles, and the Van Vault Auto for use in car boots. The Scruffs range (www.scruffs.com) continues to grow. The established footwear and workwear ranges are now complemented by a new line-up of high-visibility clothing. Other additions include the 3-in-1 Action Parka with a detachable fleece. Like all other Birchwood products, the Scruffs range is designed in-house and manufactured by specialists and sub-contractors. Further growth is planned. Within the next 12 months, Birchwood will build a separate facility for the Scuffs operation adjacent to its Nottingham premises and occupying a further 60,000ft2. Several more new product lines are under development, some of which are said to feature particularly innovative technology. EHN has been given a brief glimpse, and they should be worthy of hirers’ attention. • T
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9000 Executive Hire News › Archives › May 2006 › Executive Report › Birchwood charges ahead
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