Certex remodels business to suit customers

The five new divisions are: sales and product supply; servicing and maintenance; offshore; defence; and equipment for the playground industries. Sales and product supply will operate out of the company’s central warehouse and manufacturing facility in Harworth, Nottinghamshire, and will be supported by two satellite locations in Caerphilly covering South Wales, and Erith covering the south-east. Servicing and maintenance will be based in Wakefield and deal with all nationwide service enquiries and coordinate the activities of the company’s engineers. The offshore division will be based in Aberdeen and Great Yarmouth, and provide a full service offering to the offshore market. The defence division will work out of locations in Devonport and Portsmouth, and supply products and services to the Ministry of Defence, its prime contractors and other parts of the defence industry. The playground equipment division will run out of Gloucester, and operate a specialist sales and manufacturing location for rope-related assemblies for the playground industry.

Dave Blakey (left), service division manager, and Pat Carnall, product supply division manager

Certex has also introduced a new company-wide computer system to streamline product ordering. Stock is now controlled and dispatched from designated sources rather than held in small quantities at various regional locations, Certex said.

Charles Gillespie, director of sales and marketing at Certex, said the decision to move away from a regional structure to five divisions was made to streamline the business for the benefit of its customers.

“We were finding that most of our customers were no longer requiring direct access to their regional centres as Certex sales staff and engineers were visiting them at their own premises,” Gillespie said.

“We are confident that this new divisional structure will make all our services more efficient and cost effective, which will be of ultimate benefit to our customers.

“The regional centre approach has worked well for us in the past but customer requirements have changed and we are keen to reflect this in our working practices.”