Ears to the ground

Handling & Storage Solutions caught up with Bendi at IMHX and found a company focused on engineering excellence and listening to its customers

There was much to commend the Bendi stand at IMHX including the rock band that lit up the end of the first day, with three of the four members employees at the articulated truck manufacturer. There was also the delicious ice cream being handed out. But most importantly the company was showcasing the next generation of its products, with eight new products on show and with another one ready to launch.

MD Simon Brown explains: "We came to the last IMHX and made a significant launch and now we are moving on to the next generation of improvements.

"The developments show we are listening to our customers and pushing forward in terms of what we can offer them. Some developments have been obvious, for example, supplying AC power to the complete range of trucks and realigning the range of trucks with capacities and lift heights that customers require." Customer feedback is crucial to Bendi with the B420AC seeing 20 customer driven improvements relating to service levels, comfort of the trucks and build quality.

"Our sales guys are always banging heads with customers and getting direct feedback. It's a constant process.We sat down with customers and asked, what do we do to improve the trucks? And that's when the ideas flow out," adds Brown.

"We're also keen to be flexible. As we neared completion updating the the B420AC a customer wanted us to take it to 12m. This fell back to an older design so we quickly rolled the advantages over to the other machine and launched that.

"We've also helped customers by taking fleets off them truck by truck, putting them through the manufacturing process, changing the specifications as needed and putting them back on a contract hire basis to the period that suits their pocket." The economy has been through some hard times but being frugal with space pays dividends in the long term, insists the company.

"When times were buoyant a lot of people were saying 'it's okay we've got the profit'. Now we are in more frugal times, companies are looking at reducing space to save money. They are paying for labour, electricity, rates etc and often have more trucks than they need.We believe articulated trucks have proven themselves to be the most cost effective way of storing pallets," adds Brown.

Among the trucks launched at the show by Bendi were: Mini Bendi The Mini Bendi BP312 is a VNA pedestriancontrolled articulated forklift truck. which meets the need for a smaller, lighter machine that is not required to have the speed or the reach of a normal Bendi but can still accommodate the UKstyle perimeter based pallets. Featuring 220 degree load rotation, the Mini Bendi offers unobstructed visibility of the forks and load. The operator's position, twice as far away from the pallet compared to a traditional pedestrian truck and intuitive feedback from the truck's steering system enables pallets, including Euro style and UK perimeter based (Chep) variations, to be nimbly and safely placed.

Bendi B420 AC & B420 HL AC (highlift) The truck features added 10% added residual capacity, a 20% improvement in speed and energy efficiency and a simplified system of battery removal.

Bendi EU The Bendi European Truck is a hybrid of the original Bendi and the traditional support arm stacker truck which is already widely used in Europe. Featuring Bendi aisle performance, the new European model has a patented articulated steering system unique to this truck. This improves the lateral, forward and backward stability of the traditional support stacker format, allowing mast heights of 7m +. This new design also dramatically improves its ability to travel across uneven floors lending it to be capable of some external as well as internal duties.

Arctic Bendi This full cold store cab delivers 1.6m aisle performance and has a patented articulated steering system which improves the lateral, forward and backward stability of the support stacker format, allowing mast heights of 7m+.