Flowfit expands with £500,000 trade shop extension and new jobs
Flowfit has opened a brand new £500,000hydraulic trade shop comprising a wide range of hydraulic components and complete systems available off the shelf. As well as being able to source ready-built complete systems, customers to the Ludlow, Shropshire-based trade shop are also able to walk around the trade shop and purchase every product required to build their own complete bespoke hydraulic system.
Many of the hydraulic components and products in store are made under licence by from well-known manufacturers in Europe and Asia. Key suppliers include Bucher, Filtrec, Ikron, Galtech, Gates, Honda and Hatz, with many other products marketed under the Flowfit brand. A large number of bespoke hydraulic systems are also manufactured by Flowfit itself at its in Ludlow manufacturing/engineering facility.
Managing director Simon Parsonage first established the company in 1996, based out of a one-room office in Cinderford ,Forest of Dean. Two years’ later, Flowfit opened its first purpose-built development. Today the company employs 19 full-time staff and 6 part-time staff. In the past six months additional jobs have been created in the Engineering, Accounts, IT department as well as in the new trade shop.
Flowfit has now gone through a further expansion of 3000 sq ft to cover new trade shop area, meeting room, additional office space and a boardroom where plans are in hand to hold supplier seminars out to the industry.
Sales director Mike Parsonage reports that the success of company has exceeded expectations over the past two years; a period that has seen annual growth of 35 per cent in 2010/11 and 2011/12, with current turnover for 2012/13 fast approaching £3 million – an increase of over 18 per cent on the previous year.
Flowfit’s growth has been assisted over the years by its catalogue, which has grown from 4 pages in 2002 to the current 640-page edition. The catalogue lists a wide range of products available to buy off the shelf, including: hydraulic pumps, hydraulic valves, hydraulic motors, hydraulic power units, hydraulic hoses, hydraulic cylinders, hydraulic clutches and gearboxes, hydraulic filters, hydraulic tanks and petrol and diesel engines sold separately or made into engine-driven power units. Flowfit can also supply hydraulic filtration products from filtration parts up to a full hydraulic system.
Technological advances within the company include an online purchasing website incorporating full technical details on all product ranges, and the use of social media including Twitter and Facebook. Flowfit-branded products are exported worldwide, and today the company has a customer database of over 30,000 international customers. Flowfit also has recognised distributors and resellers in a wide range of countries.
Flowfit technical staff have been qualified through recognised industry standard courses supplied by Gates, Honda and the National Fluid Power Centre, as well as regular key supplier product training courses. Technical staff are available to assist customers with their technical enquiries or requirements – including full bespoke system builds – in a private seated environment within the trade shop area.
Flowfit field engineers are available to offer onsite visits and appraisals to look at and discuss specific customer requirements. A substantial stock holding of the Flowfit product range is held at the company’s warehouse in Ludlow ready for collection or next-day despatch through the company’s fleet of carriers; including Fedex, TNT and DHL. Opening hours for both the trade shop and the sales office are Monday to Thursday 8.30am to 5.00pm, Friday 8.00am to 4.00pm and Saturdays 8.30am to 4.00pm.
Photo caption: Flowfit’s managing director Simon Parsonage, and wife Sharon Parsonage, in the company’s brand new trade shop in Ludlow, Shropshire.
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