Charles Gillespie says farewell

Well after 25 years – it is finally time for me to move on!

I have enjoyed my career with Certex immensely. It goes without saying that I will miss the many friends and colleagues whose company I have enjoyed so much over the last two and a half decades. Like any business, we have had our fair share of ups – not to mention downs – and just as with any ‘family’, we have celebrated triumphs together and supported each other through difficult trading times, and even some personal tragedies along the way.

I have been fortunate to have worked with some fantastic people over the last 25 years, many of whom have assisted me on route, and I am confident that I leave behind a Certex team made up of some exceptionally talented individuals.

I have also enjoyed some positive and life-affirming business relationships with many of Certex’s clients and will certainly miss learning about their various business endeavours. It has been a pleasure to be able to offer solutions that I hope have helped them in a small way to become even more commercially successful.

Certex, like many companies, has experienced some tough times during the ‘credit crunch’, but is now emerging stronger than ever and is in an advantageous position to be able to offer an outstanding portfolio of products and services to its customer base, delivered, as always, with excellent customer service and attention to detail.

Certex’s core business of product sales has had a fruitful year during 2011 and with the emerging wind energy market building on its highly successful offshore service business, the future looks exciting indeed.

It means that I can now move on in the comforting knowledge that the company is in good shape and has the right foundations in place, that, if steered correctly, will ensure its safe future for decades ahead.

This is my last blog entry with Certex and I thank-you all for reading and wish all the very best with your respective futures. Meanwhile, from January onwards, Certex’s Managing Director Tony Stringer, will be blogging on behalf of the company.

Renewable UK lives up to expectations

At the end of last month, I was able to catch up with a good number of our customers and some potential new ones at the annual conference and exhibition of Renewable UK, held in Manchester from 25-27 October.

It’s easy to see why this is the UK’s premier renewable energy event and, according to the organisers, over 5,000 delegates passed through its doors during the three-day period. Certex was amongst 300 or so exhibitors and a team of us spent the whole time constantly chatting to people about our products and services and finding out what they required as consumers.

The renewable energy sector is an area that has really expanded for us in the last few years and we’re at the point now where it’s estimated that Certex carries out the majority of official inspections on offshore wind turbines in the UK, as well as having international contracts with the two leading turbine manufacturers.

One of the reasons we’re so popular within this market is the fact that we offer complete tailor-made solutions for all our customers – whether they are turbine operators, manufacturers or installers. This can be anything from supply of lifting products, engineers for rigging support during installation to providing quality inspection services for lifting equipment pressure systems, fire extinguishers, first aid kits and other safety equipment. We certainly try our hardest to meet the needs of our customers and provide solutions for any problems that they may encounter. We also ensure that they are complying with current UK legislation (such as LOLER and PUWER) and the knowledge that this area is covered gives them that all important peace of mind to carry on with their day-to-day business in a way that is both safe and legal.

I believe that it’s this level of advice and expertise that makes our services stand out and we are always willing to share this knowledge with people, whether it is on-site, over the phone or at exhibitions like these.

Offshore Europe pulls in the crowds

Last week I was lucky enough to be part of the Certex team running a stand at the SPE Offshore Europe oil and gas conference and exhibition held in Aberdeen.

We exhibited as part of Certex International Offshore Services, which combines the expertise of the various Certex companies that have an interest in this highly niche market. This meant that I was rubbing shoulders with colleagues from Certex Norge, Erling Haug and Haug Offshore from Norway, Peter Harbo from Denmark, together with staff from Certex UK’s own Offshore Division.

It was great to catch up with my international colleagues but it was even better to meet all the people that visited our stand. The organisers of the exhibition said it was the largest in the event’s history, with nearly 50,000 delegates, and I can well believe it judging from the crowds flocking to the exhibition pavilions. We were run off our feet demonstrating products and explaining our services – but I’m not complaining, that’s exactly how it should be!

In fact, it really brought home to me just how far-reaching our offering is to clients in this sector. We supply a vast range of wire rope – from wire rope slings to anchor lines and winch wires – as well as all types of lifting products including shackles, eyebolts, chain blocks and specialist ROV fittings. This is all supported by our inspection, maintenance and testing services, which are amongst the best in the industry. For instance, our recently launched test bench in Esbjerg has the capacity to test lifting equipment up to 1200 tonnes and is one of the largest facilities of its kind in Northern Europe.

But, putting all that to one side, the thing that struck me most was the sheer depth of expertise and knowledge that was represented on our stand, running into literally hundreds of years’ of experience in wire rope and lifting equipment. It was this valuable ‘know-how’ that visitors to the stand were benefiting from and it is this resource that we are always so willing to share with our customers.

Lights, camera, action!!!

As you may have read in a recent newsletter, we have been creating a short web video about the company, telling people about what we do and the services we offer, which can be shown to customers, viewed on our website or screened at exhibitions and events.

This in itself was quite a tall order, particularly when you offer as much as we do to such a wide range of industries and it is hard to cover everything in the space of a few short minutes – which is evidently all the time you have these days to get your message across! Certainly for me, accompanying the crew on the day, reminded me of just how diverse our products and services are.

We filmed office staff taking orders, organising service and inspection reports and monitoring stock levels. Then there were the people dispatching equipment from the warehouse; the engineers turning wire ropes into customised assemblies; and our training staff running specialised courses and sessions. And these were only the staff on site – there are just as many out in the field, from our sales staff visiting customers to the engineers who are busy installing, testing and servicing equipment on land or at sea.

All of these roles – and the many others that I have not even begun to mention – are vitally important in delivering products and services to the customer and they fit together to make Certex the busy, friendly and efficient organisation it is. We could only film snapshots of our work but we hope the resulting footage captures the essence of the company.

Finally, please remember there were no make-up artists, dressers or special effects. This is a genuine take on how we are on any day of the week!

CAPTION: Charles Gillespie being interviewed for the Certex promotional web video.

Delivering outstanding customer service made easy.....

In today’s tough business environment, if you are going to out-perform the competition then delivering outstanding customer service is a must.

Mulling over this point whilst stuck in traffic heading north from London on a Friday afternoon, I was interrupted by a phone call instigated by our out-of-hours emergency service. How soon could we deliver a product into the depths of the South West as their current supplier had let them down and missed a deadline for delivery? A couple of phone calls later I could relax, knowing the South West team would respond and sort it out.

The next day (Saturday), I received a call at lunchtime from our products business manager who deems it normal to expect calls from his customers whenever needed. This time it was from one of the leading tower crane operators in the UK. A crane rope had been damaged on a construction site in the middle of London. The plea was – ‘we need a rope for tomorrow but ideally today!’

Again a quick phone call was made to the on-call shift manager – who was actually just about to go on holiday. He was able to mobilise one of his team and together they opened up our Harworth production facility and the rope was duly manufactured.

We were just waiting for the courier when another message came through – ‘We need an urgent job doing on site at the inner harbour in Great Yarmouth.’ A quick call was made to the local manager (who is used to receiving requests any time of the day or night including Christmas)and another crisis was averted.

Meanwhile back to the crane rope. The special courier picked the rope up and a little over five hours after the initial call, the rope was delivered to the London construction site at 5:45pm on a Saturday afternoon.

So, how difficult is it to do this? Well if you are lucky enough to have committed employees with a ‘can-do’ attitude working for you, as CERTEX undoubtedly has, then the answer is quite simply – ‘it’s not difficult at all!!!’

One very large test bench

There are many advantages of being part of the huge organisation that is Axel Johnson – one of Europe’s leading suppliers of lifting and lashing equipment – but a particular bonus is the ability to access the facilities of other members of the group.

It was therefore with great excitement that we learnt about a new test bench that has been installed in the Port of Esbjerg by our Danish counterpart Peter Harbo A/S. With the capacity to test lifting equipment of up to 1200 tonnes (pulling force) and dimensions up to 15 metres, it is easily one of the largest facilities of its kind in Northern Europe.

This is particularly good news for us because there is currently an increasing demand for heavier and bigger constructions, which in turn require correspondingly larger lifting devices – all needing accurate testing. Previously, larger pieces of equipment had to be out-sourced for testing so being able to carry out this process ‘in-house’ will ultimately be more cost-effective and time-saving for our customers.

The new facility should have widespread applications in the offshore, wind power, shipping, marine and construction industries and will be able to test all sorts of equipment including: steel wire rope; chain; chain accessories; hooks and rings; crane hooks and blocks; fibre ropes; mooring lines; hawsers; single bouy moorings; as well as lifting beams, brackets and triangles.

As is to be expected, equipment of this size does not come cheap and this facility has cost around 5million DKK. That this sort of investment has been possible at a time when companies in general are holding back on expenditure is undoubtedly down to the size and influence of our parent company.

Having access to shared equipment and facilities like this should hopefully enable us to provide better services for our existing customers as well as reach out to new ones.

Certex takes wind energy market by storm

Working at height during a wind farm installation

It is always fantastic to win new business – especially at the moment in this tough economic climate – but we have recently had particular cause to celebrate with the award of several new contracts in the wind energy sector.

We already had a large share of this expanding market but these latest contracts firmly establish us as one of the leading suppliers of statutory inspection services to this industry. Indeed, it is estimated that Certex now carries out the majority of official inspections on wind turbines in the UK.

So what does the work itself involve? Basically, we make sure that all lifting and safety equipment is kept in top working condition and meets the current legislative standards. This gives our customers complete peace of mind that safety on site is always being maintained and that they are working within the law.

In fact, I am certain that it is Certex’s reputation for high health and safety standards – as well as the quality of work carried out – that accounts for our dominance within this market. We are acutely aware that our decisions on inspecting equipment have a big implication for the safety of clients’ personnel and we take this responsibility very seriously.

It is for this reason that the engineers we employ are amongst the most qualified in the UK lifting industry and are used to carrying out their duties on offshore platforms around the world – sometimes in the most extreme and inhospitable conditions!

We also back up the inspection side of the work with the very latest in records management, making it easy for clients to keep track of information and schedules. Once a test has been carried out, the results are loaded onto CertMax – a specially designed Certex software system, which gives clients’ instant online visibility of product histories, maintenance issues and inspection reports for their particular site.

It is a huge task for any company to manage and maintain all this equipment – let alone keep on top of current legislation – but at least we have the experience to make the process as simple and hassle-free as possible.

Harnessing the power of the internet

Certex has just unveiled its new-look website and we are all really proud of it. It still has the same easy-to-read house style with all of the usual pages giving company information, news and comprehensive details of products and services but we have now introduced a market place section. This is so that customers in our most commonly serviced industries can go straight to the information that is most relevant to them.

So if, for instance, you want a replacement crane rope, you would go to ‘Market’ on the main tool bar, select ‘Crane Manufacturers’ and straight away you will see the crane wire rope products. Within this section, there is also information on other products and services relevant to your particular industry sector, and details of our experience in that field.

We are hoping that this will make things a lot quicker and easier for our key customers and avoid them having to search for their information in the general sections. Anyway, please let us know how you find this new method of navigation. Your feedback is extremely valuable to us.

Certex is also just about to send out its first electronic newsletter. These days, people receive most of their information online via their computers or phones, so we think that the new format will make it easier to keep our customers up-to-date with the latest news and developments from Certex. It is also a faster and more cost-effective way of communication, so we will be able to send newsletters out more frequently – ensuring that news is kept up-to-date and relevant. It is strange to think that those days of waiting for material to come back from the printers and then having to organise mammoth ‘mail-out’ sessions could well be over – not to mention the number of trees we will save!

Whilst on the subject of e-communication, we are also going to be sending a lot more of our target-specific information out electronically. This will enable us to get things like industry updates, product details and offers out to customers in a more efficient way. To make sure that you are included on our electronic mailing list, please email your details to cgillespie@certex.co.uk.

A changing world...

Hello and welcome to our very first blog post.

Certex has never had an official blog before but – in our quest to keep up with the times and join the social media community that seems to be gathering such momentum – we thought it would be a great idea. Besides, there’s always plenty to report on from Certex and the lifting industry in general, so I hope you’ll log on regularly.

I was delighted to be asked to write the blog but I have to say that I’m new to all of this, so please bear with me. In fact, I am always amazed at how much things do change and how you have to keep responding to it. I have been working in the lifting industry for almost 25 years now and in that time have only been with two companies – Bridon and Certex – yet I feel as though my job has kept constantly changing with new challenges every day. A lot of this is due to new products and developments, changing industry regulations and requirements, differing economic conditions and of course new technology but the point is nothing stands still.

Certex itself is a prime example. When I joined in 2004, the company was owned by Bridon International. A year later I was part of a successful management buyout team and became one of the three owner-directors. Then almost exactly three years ago, the company was sold to Forankra International AB, a Swedish subsidiary of Axel Johnson International and one of the market leaders in the supply of lifting and lashing equipment across Europe. We didn’t take this step lightly as it was fun running our business but we felt that our new owners had the financial strength to take us further.

As we reach the third anniversary of this new ownership, I find myself reflecting that in some ways things have remained the same. Certex still has the same management team, staff, quality service ethos and – most importantly – many of our original clients. We have not been immune to the financial crisis but we have been able to thrive and develop thanks to the financial backing of such a big company. For instance, we have been able to source new products and develop our own quality brands; install new integrated IT systems giving stock visibility across Europe; and increase our market share in several key sectors. All of which would have been difficult to achieve on our own in the current economic climate. We are lucky that this change has had such a positive effect and that we have been better placed than most to weather the storm that is affecting so many others in our industry.

Times still remain uncertain but there are small signs that the market is recovering and we’re certainly in a strong position to support our clients with an excellent portfolio of products and services that will allow them to focus on their core business, while we take care of the lifting.

Charles


About the blogger:

Charles Gillespie is Sales and Marketing Director at Certex UK. With almost 25 years’ experience within the lifting industry, he started his career with the wire rope specialists, Bridon, working up to General Manager for Distribution and Sales. He joined Certex in 2004 and was part of the successful Management Buy Out team that bought the company a year later. Certex UK is now part of Axel Johnson International and is one of the nation’s leading suppliers of lifting gear and services.