City Link keeps ERIKS UK equipped

Many manufacturing companies in the UK rely on ERIKS UK to keep their plants running when a production line has problems that could cause it to shut down.

When hydraulics, pneumatics or bearings fail, they call on the 90 years of technical knowledge and engineering expertise which ERIKS UK has to offer.

The stakes are high: the cost of lost production can quickly run into thousands if not tens of thousands of pounds if a factory remains at a standstill for long.

So when companies turn to ERIKS UK for urgently required components it is vital that ERIKS can deliver the right part at the right time – and that is why ERIKS UK has selected City Link as its preferred carrier for the past eight years.

City Link not only delivers next-day to ERIKS UK’s network of 76 industrial service centres, nine core competence centres, 23 fully equipped repair workshops and 88 integrated on-site stores and procurement centres in the UK, it also operates a Sameday service around the clock for those vital emergency deliveries.

City Link has an employee located in the main ERIKS UK warehouse in Halesowen, West Midlands who arranges all the urgent Sameday consignments, backed up by City Link’s call centre which handles any out-of-hours emergency deliveries.

When an urgent order comes in ERIKS UK picks the correct part or parts while City Link organises delivery to the end customer as quickly as possible – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

"From the day that City Link placed one of its employees in our warehouse to improve customer service and response we have never looked back," said Peter Timbrell, Logistics Director of ERIKS UK, Industrial Distribution.

"He understands our business and the pressures under which we operate. City Link is doing an excellent job on Sameday delivery for us.

"While the volumes are not high, Sameday delivery is a critical service for our customers. If a food plant, for example, has a breakdown and if we cannot repair the plant until the next day then the costs are very significant.

"If a factory is losing £5,000 an hour in lost production, waiting 24 hours for delivery of a vital part would have horrendous consequences."

Part of a global enterprise which spans 60 companies and 26 countries, ERIKS UK can supply more than 500,000 unique industrial products as well as carry out services such as air leak surveys, vibration analysis and thermography.

Timely delivery of parts for routine maintenance and repairs is also essential and ERIKS UK sends out components overnight to 200 sites on a daily basis, mostly to its distribution centres but also to the on-site procurement stores which it runs within many factories in the UK.

Customers can order up to 5.30pm the night before and City Link will deliver the next day, with ERIKS UK using its own fleet of vans only for ‘last mile delivery’ direct to customers from its distribution centres.

In addition to the main distribution centre at Halesowen, ERIKS UK sends out parts from its specialist centres: seals, motors, and gear boxes from several sites at Dudley; hose at Slough and Northampton; and gaskets at Barnsley.

Mr Timbrell said: "City Link has maintained extremely high levels of service to our branches – performing well above the industry standard for next day delivery.

"For example in a recent month of trading it was 99.97% problem-free which I would say is pretty good."