Lancashire-based Garic, one of the UK’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of plant and site welfare equipment has announced a record turnover for its latest year end.
In a year in which the company celebrated its 30th anniversary, Garic saw a 21 percent increase in revenue and an outstanding £28m turnover – up £4.9m on the previous year.
The company, which has depots throughout the UK, significantly increased its presence and foothold further with the expansion of its Midlands and Scottish operations and in a landmark development, invested £1.5m opening a new state-of-the-art distribution centre at West Thurrock. This is currently facilitating the supply of rental eco-products in central London for prestigious contracts such as the Thames Tideway and DEFRA Fleet Services Emergency Response Teams.
Nigel Quinn, managing director said: “Garic’s sustained growth, not just financially but also in terms of geographical foothold and product development, clearly demonstrates that our approach and drive for business excellence is reaping dividends. Our strategy to achieve this included a goal to make Garic one of the top ‘go to’ hirers in the UK.
“One of the main reasons I believe we’re achieving this is the differentiator between us and the rest of the industry on quality. By nature, the construction sector is hard on plant and equipment so hiring out products that arrive as good as new on each and every job can be challenging.
“Garic’s Right First Time initiative has now been operational for two years and our latest statistics show that 98.5 percent of products hired out do not break down. Customer related breakdowns rather than product faults are also included in this figure so in reality this percentage is even higher.
“We also measure our quality standards using a ‘no intervention’ marker for all live hires. For example, last week there wasn’t one single breakdown on site throughout the UK across our entire hire stock. This indicates that every product from a welfare cabin to a boot wash has been fully maintained and passed its 30-point check before going out on hire again. We get a lot of feedback from clients commenting that our products are like new.
“Sending out site solutions rather than problems means the construction industry can fulfil its CDM regulations in the most environmentally friendly way without worrying that a site office will lose power or a mobile toilet will become blocked. If we do need to attend site for any reason, the best response time to anywhere in the UK for our service vehicles is 65 minutes – often quicker than the AA!”
The last financial year also saw the company launch Garic Rail, a dedicated new division for the hire of specific products to rail providers and the top contractors working within the rail sector. The division is already working with 10 leading companies including VolkerRail and J Murphy & Son as well as establishing a collaborative partnership with Network Rail.
Another notable achievement includes Garic being awarded preferred supplier status by an unprecedented number of large, high profile clients including: DEFRA’s Environment Agency; The Ferrovial Agroman Laing O’Rourke Thames Tideway joint venture; HSS Amey and Network Rail. The company also elevated its position to Framework Supply Partner for Skanska and Siemens respectively.
