Service the key

Briggs Equipment tackles the challenge of integrating its closest rival, Barloworld UK

Briggs Equipment has vowed to maintain high levels of customer service as it digests the acquisition of its biggest rival Barloworld UK (which had distributed Hyster trucks in the UK), which it bought last month for £36 million.

Richard Close, CEO of Briggs Equipment said: "I think the first stages will be challenging, but we are contacting customers and they have been positive.

We also feel staff at Barloworld are high quality and positive about the deal.

"The cultures of Briggs and Barloworld are similar, they are both focused on a solutions sale. We've done this before, acquiring Yale UK in 2010, and the key is to keep an arm around your staff and an arm around the customer." As part of bringing the companies together, Briggs will move the IT system of the Barloworld side of the business from SAP to the M3 platform used by Briggs. The company anticipates this will be integrated by 2H13, but says it will not compromise service levels to hit a schedule.

The acquisition will see the Barloworld brand disappear in the UK, although the NACCO forklift brands Hyster and Yale will remain, each with separate sales teams.

The combined company will boast more than 600 engineers and a large short term hire fleet comprising 4,800 trucks (2,800 Briggs, 2,000 Barloworld).

In terms of staff and branches inherited from Barloworld, Close said it was too early to say if all would be retained, but he said the company was taking a long term approach with ambitious growth plans.

Briggs Equipment operates a highly centralised model, servicing the UK from a huge facility in Cannock. As part of the deal, Briggs takes on 22 Barloworld depots. While this addition to premises is significant, Close said that it does not change the Briggs philosophy.

"The deports will increase coverage but we won't have the depot management layer. The network will be managed centrally, with service level standards dictated centrally." Briggs will use the expanded service team and general critical mass in bids for large forklift contracts with clients such as the Ministry of Defence. Likewise the increase in scale could help speed up its diversification into bidding for service contracts of non-MHE kit such as aircraft baggage handlers.

Close explained: "We've got engineering expertise that is mobile. If a customer needs equipment fixed on site, we can do it. For the Environment Agency we manage tractors, grass cutters etc. We see this as a major area of potential growth for our expanding business."