Prepared for the Christmas rush?

For companies such as Strawsons – and many others involved in food and drink, recycling and waste management, and the retail industry – Christmas is the busiest period of the year, and short-term arrangements must be made to meet high demand from their customers. 

John Meale, MD of Thorworld Industries says: "Spikes in productivity provide an essential boost to a company’s turnover. Yet dealing with such increases depends on having the loading and unloading infrastructure to deal with the additional capacity – delays in supply can damage a company’s relationship with its customers and impact adversely on profits."

The mobile yardramp offers a solution to short-term demand because it can be rented for a fixed period and returned when output reverts to typical levels. Meale adds: "We keep plenty of yardramps in stock for exactly this purpose, especially at this time of year when a growing number of customers turn to us to assist with their pre-Christmas loading requirements.”

While Strawsons' permanent site has dedicated loading bays, the company uses a satellite site in the weeks leading up to December to deal with the increase in output of its fresh pre-packed vegetables for supply into leading supermarkets.

The producer purchased its first ramp back in 2003, which Thorworld continues to regularly service and maintain. In 2009, Strawsons begain to rent additional ramps to enhance production across its sites and ensure a seamless process from packing through to distribution; in 2013, four extra ramps were rented for this purpose.

"We don’t have the capacity at our main site to cope during our busiest period, yet there isn’t the volume of demand year-round to justify investing in loading bays at our satellite sites,” explains Billy Prince of Strawsons.

"Yardramp rentals are a cost-effective and highly practical solution to this conundrum, and Thorworld’s yardramps are easy to operate and extremely safe. Thorworld’s service has been exceptional during our decade working together; we simply tell them how many ramps we need for the forthcoming season and Thorworld makes them available quickly and without fuss so that we’re well prepared for the Christmas rush."