In the pipeline - Pirtek UK

Quarter 1 2009
In the pipeline
Pirtek Comes of Age
The fastest emergency hose replacement service there is

In the pipeline
3
Pirtek Comes
of Age
There can be little doubt that 2009
will be a tough year for the UK and
Irish economies. The credit crunch
shows no signs of abating and it
seems that familiar high street
names are closing their doors for
the final time on an almost daily
basis.
But here at Pirtek, it is hard to be
gloomy. At the time of writing
this, we have just enjoyed a
fabulous 20th anniversary
celebration and, as a company, we
are entering the New Year (our
21st in the UK) with a considerable
amount of enthusiasm and
bullishness.
As you will read later in this issue
of In the Pipeline, we have just
opened our latest Centres,
Cramlington and Immingham,
providing our customers with an
even greater level of national
coverage; our new product
catalogue, which contains more
than 25,000+ line items, is just a
few weeks away from publication;
and with the announcement that
Andrew Jordan will be driving for
the works Vauxhall VXRacing team
in the 2009 BTCC season, we’re
anticipating a huge amount of
positive TV exposure.
Having worked through recessions
before, we are also aware that
many of our customers will be
seeking to cut costs by
outsourcing vital repair and
maintenance activities across a
wide range of industry sectors.
Our continuing investment in
people and innovation, coupled
with our reputation for a rapid and
reliable response to emergency
customer calls, will stand us in
good stead and ensure that our
customers continue to receive the
levels of service they have come to
expect.
Following the sad demise of the
likes of Woolworths and Waterford
Wedgwood, it would be incredibly
naive to suggest that there is any
such thing as a recession-proof
company.
However, as Pirtek comes of age in
this its 21st year, our customers
can rest assured that we’re here
for the long haul and that we will
be working hard to ensure that
they make it through what
threatens to be a very difficult
year.
Best regards
Kelvin Roberts
Chairman, Pirtek Europe
Contents
Online Presence Upgraded 3
Chairman saves power 4
Pirtek Oldbury aids Sims 5
Safeguarding Priday 6
Watch it come down 7
Warrington on the move 8
New catalogue out soon 9
20 years of success 10
In the frame 11
Jordan joins Vauxhall 12
Published by Pirtek (UK) Limited
35 Acton Park Estate,
The Vale, Acton,
London W3 7QE
Tel 020 8749 8444 Fax 020 8749 8333
E-mail info@pirtek.co.uk
The new edition of the
Pirtek Fluid Transfer
Solutions catalogue,
which contains
details of more than
25,000 line items,
is out soon.
To pre-order your own personal copy,
please go to:
http://www.pirtek.co.uk/pirtekproducts/catalogue.aspx
There can be little doubt that even
the Luddites amongst us are now
living in the Age of the Internet.
For many business people and
private individuals, the Internet is
now their primary source of
information; and whilst UK high
street retailers were facing some
of the worst economic conditions
for several decades, online sales in
the run up to Christmas were up by
an estimated 60 percent.
Against this background, Pirtek
has just re-launched its website to
provide customers with faster and
easier access to the information
they require. Designed for fast,
seamless navigation, the new site
features a more minimalist design
and has the Centre Locator in a
prominent position, allowing
customers to find and contact
their local Pirtek representative
with just a few mouse clicks.
Also on the home page,
customers can pre-order the new
Pirtek catalogue and catch up on
the latest Pirtek news, including
its sponsorship of the Rugby
League World Cup winning New
Zealand team.
So whether you need a hose or
assembly, are interested in
becoming a Pirtek franchisee
or simply want to check the
date and venue of the next
round of the British Touring
Car Championship,
www.pirtek.co.uk is the place to
go. And better still, the site has
been fully optimised to work
equally well on a variety of handheld
devices, so iPhone and
Blackberry users can take Pirtek
with them wherever they go.
For readers in Ireland the
www.pirtek.ie site will be updated
shortly.
Online
Presence
Upgraded
Quarter 1 2009

In the pipeline
5
Pirtek Chairman Saves Power
Pirtek UK chairman Kelvin Roberts in conjunction with the
team at Pirtek Ashford have helped safeguard electrical
power generation at the famous Dungeness B nuclear
power station in Kent.
According to popular perception, a
company chairman’s life is usually a
heady mix of golf course-based
meetings, free lunches and a
stylish car in an allocated parking
space by the front door of the
company headquarters. It doesn’t
generally involve emergency phone
calls and 100 kilometre taxi
journeys to come to the rescue of a
customer. However, that was
precisely what happened to Pirtek
chairman Kelvin Roberts recently
when British Energy, owner and
operator of the Dungeness B
nuclear power station, called upon
Pirtek to avert a £1.5 million
unplanned shutdown.
Shutdown Cost
Pirtek Ashford, preferred supplier
to the power station for the past
five years, was put on alert on
Saturday 18 October when three
coolant hoses serving the station’s
water intakes failed. Pirtek was
subsequently stood down when
British Energy called in the plant’s
original manufacturers to solve the
potentially critical problem. “We
know just how critical these call
outs can be so we were ready to
respond,” says Pirtek Ashford
licensee Daniel Peters.
Unbeknown to Peters, the three
hoses were to fail again overnight,
triggering an emergency call to
Mobile Sales and Service
Technician Steve Vallance, a
regular visitor to Dungeness B.
“I talked the problem through with
them on the phone and quickly
identified that the required hoses
were a 50 mm diameter Pir-flex -
32 hose,” Vallance says. “Even
though we hold more than
£100,000 worth of stock, I knew
we had a limited supply of this
highly specialised hose, especially
in such long lengths. I also knew
that British Energy faced a £1.5
million shutdown cost if we
couldn’t help them.”
Taxi Journey
Steve Vallance, already on standby
to attend the emergency call out
personally, called in the parts order
Pirtek
Ashford
licensee
Daniel Peters.
to licensee Daniel
Peters. At the same
time, Peters was trying
to locate a stock of the
Pir-flex hose and
sufficient ferrules to
make the replacement.
Unable to contact the
Pirtek area manager –
this was Sunday morning after all –
Peters then called Pirtek UK
chairman Kelvin Roberts who was
then charged with liberating the
required parts from the company’s
Acton headquarters. Knowing that
the stock was being assembled,
Daniel Peters then organised a taxi
to collect and deliver the parts
direct to Pirtek Ashford where the
company’s large crimping machine
could make the final assemblies.
“Using the taxi to save time and an
additional 100 kilometre journey
from Ashford, allowed staff to get
to Ashford at the same time as the
new hoses. We collected the
hoses from Acton at 14.45, by
16.15 they were at Ashford and by
17.30 we had solved the problem
at Dungeness,” Daniel Peters
concludes. “This shows we have a
brilliant and outstanding team here
and that the Pirtek network really
works.”
Pirtek
Oldbury
Aids
Scrap
Yard
Expansion
The ongoing assistance and support from Pirtek’s Oldbury
Hose Centre is helping the smooth expansion of a Black
Country scrap processing facility. Owned and operated by
Sims Group UK Ltd, the world’s largest scrap recycling
concern, the facility is currently installing a new car
de-pollution plant and once again, Pirtek Oldbury is lending
a helping hand.
Sims Group has put its faith in the
hydraulic hose replacement service
offered by Pirtek Oldbury as the
world’s largest scrap processing and
recycling company expands operations
at its recently acquired facility at
James Scott Road in Halesowen.
Broad Equipment Fleet
The facility, which has operated as a
scrap yard for more than 25 years,
covers an area of more than 0.8 of a
hectare and draws scrap from an 80
kilometre radius, regularly processes
up to 5,000 tonnes of ferrous and nonferrous
metals each month. However,
Sims Group has bigger plans for the
facility it purchased just over 12
months ago, and immediately set about
stamping its professionalism on the
operation, with Pirtek’s assistance
playing a pivotal role.
“We operate a large fleet of highly
specialised equipment including a pair
of Caterpillar 320 scrap handling
excavators, two RB crawler cranes, and
two materials handlers from Atlas and
Fuchs Terex. These are the heart of
the operation and a breakdown can
bring operations to a standstill,” says
site manager Jim Ross. “Very early on
after our takeover, we called in Pirtek
Oldbury and their Mobile Sales and
Service Technician Richard set about
logging each machine and its hydraulic
needs to ensure that their stock was a
match for our likely requirements.
Richard also carries out regular hose
inspections on all our machines to preempt
potential failures that might lead
to unplanned equipment downtime”
Expansion Plans
In addition to upgrading its parts and
spares logistics, Sims has set some
ambitious expansion plans for the yard
and aims to increase scrap output from
the current 5,000 tonnes per month to
more than 7,000 tonnes. To facilitate
this, the yard is being partially rebuilt
with a new concrete slab being laid to
ensure that oils, lubricants and other
Sims Group
the world’s
largest scrap
processing
and recycling
company
expands
operations at
its recently
acquired
facility at
James Scott
Road in
Halesowen,
with the help
of Pirtek
Oldbury.
contaminants cannot escape the
confines of the site. And even though
this construction work is being
conducted by a third-party contractor,
Pirtek has once again been involved.
“The construction works here have
required the use of excavators and
dumpers for several months and I have
personally recommended that the
contractor – Thames Valley
Construction – uses Pirtek Oldbury to
supply its replacement hydraulic hoses
throughout the contract,” Jim
continues.
However, the biggest change at the
yard is the construction of a new
End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) “super rig” by
Power Transmission Engineering Ltd,
the first of its kind in the UK.
Developed in response to the European
Union’s end of life vehicle directive
which requires 85 percent of cars to be
recycled, the unit is designed to
facilitate the rapid removal of oils,
lubricants and fluids together with gas
from the air conditioning system and
vehicle tyres. “It really is a remarkable
piece of kit,” Jim asserts. “When it is
operational, we will be able to fully depollute
a car in less than 25 minutes, a
job that would previously have taken
50 minutes.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, Pirtek has
once again been involved, supplying the
necessary hoses for the installation
and already allocating emergency
hoses and assemblies at its Oldbury
facility. The company is also supplying
spill kits to deal with spills of oils and
battery acids that might occur within
the new ELV super rig. “Pirtek Oldbury
has played a key part in our
development of this facility and we
view Richard almost as a part of OUR
team,” Jim Ross concludes.
“This is one of the busiest weighbridges
in the Sims Group network and we
simply can’t afford to have any of our
main machines out of action.
Thankfully, Pirtek Oldbury has helped
reduce our downtime and maximise
each machines availability.”
Quarter 1 2009

In the pipeline 7
Pirtek Safeguards Priday Production
The ongoing support
provided by Pirtek’s
Gloucester Hose Centre is
helping safeguard
production for local
agricultural contractor,
FA Priday and Sons Ltd.
Gloucester-based agricultural
contractor FA Priday and Sons Ltd
is safeguarding its productivity
and profitability by using Pirtek
Gloucester to handle all its on-site
emergency hydraulic hose
replacements. The company,
which runs a broad range of
equipment for both internal and
contracting applications, has been
a Pirtek Gloucester customer for
more than 6 years.
Unusual Fittings
Founded by Fred Priday in 1966,
Priday currently employs 11
people and operates a full range of
agricultural and hire equipment
including Claas Combines, JCB
wheeled loaders and telehandlers,
and Takeuchi mini excavators.
The company offers a year-round
contracting service, commencing
in February with ploughing and
cultivating to drilling and silaging,
running through to combining and
baling in the summer months to
groundworks, drainage and hedge
cutting in the winter.
With such a wide range of
equipment, Priday needs speedy
access to a wide range of spare
parts at very short notice.
“We have some excellent John
Deere tractors but they have one
annoying component; flush-fitting
flat faced hose ends If one of
these fails, we could be facing a
24-hour delay because they are
such weird fixings,” explains
Richard Priday, son of founder
Fred. “But I’ll guarantee if we call
Pirtek Gloucester, they will replace
the hose and have the machine
working within the hour.”
Rapid Response
With more than 100 agricultural
customers including many that use
the company’s trade counter
service, Pirtek Gloucester’s
licensee Charlie Oakhill recognises
the specific needs of the
agricultural sector.
“Thanks to the notoriously
unpredictable British weather, our
agricultural customers have to
make maximum use of every hour
of available daylight,” Oakhill
asserts. “In particular, agricultural
contractors simply cannot afford
unplanned equipment downtime.”
One of
Richard
Priday’s
excellent John
Deere
tractors
receiving
instant
support from
Pirtek
Gloucester
This view is echoed by Richard
Priday. “Our working windows can
be incredibly tight. Last year we
had all the harvesting done by the
end of August. Due to the weather
this year, it was the end of
September. We have to take
advantage of every fine day and
there is little point arriving on site
and then having to wait 24 hours to
replace a burst hose,” Richard
Priday concludes. “We have been
offered equipment to repair our
own hoses but I can’t imagine how
many components we would have
to carry, Pirtek give us excellent,
fast and reliable service so we’ll
leave our hose replacements to the
experts.”
With a proud history stretching back some 80 years,
Syd Bishop and Sons is one of the UK’s premier demolition
contractors and is a regular user of Pirtek’s services.
Like many UK demolition
contractors, Syd Bishop and Sons
is a family-owned concern that is
today run by descendants of the
original founder who gave his name
to the company. Recognised as
one of the UK’s foremost
demolition contractors, Syd Bishop
and Sons operates a large, modern
equipment fleet that ranges from
high reach excavators and mobile
crushers to wheel and skid steer
loaders, each bearing the familiar
“watch it come down” slogan.
These are backed by an extensive
equipment fleet at a facility near
Dartford where the company
operates a combined quarry and
construction and demolition waste
recycling centre.
“The days when demolition meant
men with jack-hammers has long
since passed. The modern
demolition industry has pioneered
the use of highly specialised
equipment to help isolate workers
from potential danger,” explains
director Steve Bishop. “Virtually
every aspect of our work today is
dependent upon equipment from
the excavators and attachments
that demolish the buildings to the
crushers and screens that process
and segregate the rubble. And in
turn, those machines are
dependent upon hydraulic power.”
Syd Bishop and Sons is a
longstanding Pirtek customer,
entrusting all emergency on site
hose replacements to a local Pirtek
Centre. “When a hose fails on a
high reach machine, it can bring an
entire contract to a standstill. And
with late completion penalties now
commonplace, we simply cannot
afford to wait for a repair to be
made,” Bishop continues. “Pirtek
are the experts in their field and
we would rather entrust such hose
replacements to a recognised
expert.”
Bishop reports that although his
company has an account with
Watch it
Come Down!
Director
Steve Bishop
overseeing
the final
stages of the
demolition of
the old
University of
East London
Pirtek are the
experts in their
field and we would
rather entrust such
hose replacements
to a recognised
expert
Pirtek Erith, the Hose Centre
located closest to its construction
and demolition waste recycling
facility, his team regularly calls
upon support from the Thurrock
and Docklands Centres and some
even further afield. “Our work is
normally in and around the Kent
and London areas but, as a national
company, we can find ourselves
working just about anywhere,”
Bishop reports. “It is reassuring to
know that, wherever we go in the
country, the same reliable Pirtek
service is just a phone call away.”
Quarter 1 2009

In the pipeline
9
Pirtek Warrington
on the Move
New Centre
Extends
Derbyshire
Coverage
New Catalogue
Out Soon
If you think Pirtek only supplies high-pressure hydraulic hoses, think
again. Containing 25,000+ items, the latest edition of the Pirtek Fluid
Transfer Solution catalogue showcases the extensive range of products
and services that are available from Pirtek across the UK and Ireland.
The new Pirtek Catalogue is :-
• Bigger and better
• Has over 800 pages across nine sections
• Includes new images to aid product identification, together with a new,
easy-to-use and comprehensive part number index
The new catalogue is coming soon and has a recommended retail price of
£5.00/€5.00.
To pre-order your FREE, personal copy, please visit
www.pirtek.co.uk/pirtek-products/catalogue.aspx
Andy Jones
It’s been a busy few months for
Craig Harrison, licensee of Pirtek’s
Hose Centres at Stoke, Wigan and
Warrington. Craig picked up the
silver award in the British
Franchise Association’s Franchisee
of the Year award, a feat that he
topped by winning gold in Pirtek’s
own Franchisee of the Year
contest. At the same time, Craig
was overseeing the relocation of
his Warrington Centre to Birch
Court in Grosvenor Grange.
Providing excellent access to the
nearby M6 motorway for faster
customer response times, the new
Centre is newly equipped and is
currently supported by two mobile
service vehicles covering the
Warrington, Northwich and
Altrincham area. The new Centre
also connects well with Craig’s
other two Centres, effectively
allowing him to provide local
customers with a reliable, blanket
of coverage from junctions 14 to
28 of the M6.
“The new Centre has already
proved very popular with
customers because it is in a much
better location’” says Pirtek
Warrington sales manager Andy
Jones. “We have been extremely
busy with our regular customers
but we have also been fortunate to
be on the doorstep of a lot of
potential customers who have also
decided to move to the new
Grosvenor Grange site.”
Pirtek Warrington already service
customers at Manchester airport,
the Environment Agency, who
maintain the region’s flood
defences, rail contractor Hydrex,
coach business WA Shearings and
transport company Eddie Stobart.
John Saunders
Pirtek customers in the Derbyshire area will now
benefit from even faster response times, following
the opening of a new satellite Centre in
Chesterfield. Located on the Sheepbridge
Industrial Estate, the new Centre is owned by Pirtek
licensee Phil Brown and will provide support for
Phil’s other Centre in Sheffield.
According to Centre manager John Saunders, the
opening of the new satellite Centre followed a huge
amount of hard work from the existing Pirtek
Sheffield team. “We took over the unit in May but
it was an empty undecorated breezeblock unit.
It has been totally decorated and kitted out by the
staff from Sheffield.”
That hard work has paid off and the new Centre
officially opened on 1 October. “The Chesterfield
depot has been on the cards for a long time and is
intended to cover the J29-30 section of the M1 and
provide additional coverage of the Peak District,”
John concludes. “This was definitely a good move,
even in the current economic climate. Chesterfield
has already added quarry and plant customers in
the Peak District and Stagecoach in Chesterfield,
so there is plenty of untapped new business
potential here.”
Rapid Response
It isn’t just its response to customer
service calls to which Pirtek reacts
quickly, a fact that is illustrated by
the opening of a new dedicated Hose
Centre at Cramlington to the North of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
“We had been looking to open a
second depot to provide customers
with a faster service in and around
the Cramlington area,” says Pirtek
Tyne and Wear general manager
Kevin Monaghan. “When we heard
that our former competitor Hiflex
had gone going into administration,
we immediately seized the
opportunity to open a trade
B NL D IRE UK
Call Pirtek in Europe
If you are working in Belgium ,Germany or Holland and need a hose just call Pirtek.
The same rapid response on site service is available in these countries and we are
introducing national phone numbers to make it easier for you to contact us.
Our national numbers are
• Belgium 078 051 888 • Germany 0800 99 88 900
• Holland 088 111 8888 (From mid March 2009)
• Ireland 1800 74 78 35 • UK 0800 38 24 38
counter service in their former
depot to ensure a continuity of
service for customers in that area.”
Located on the Bassington Industrial
Estate, the new Pirtek Cramlington
Centre will be run by Graham Murray
(right) who has over seven years
service with Pirtek. Graham will be
ably assisted by Steve Turnbull, a
former Hiflex Cramlington employee,
who also has extensive hydraulic
hose experience.
“Together with the support of Pirtek
Tyne and Wear our aim is to provide a
first class service, and a competitive
one at that,” concludes Kevin
Monaghan. “Pirtek Tyne and Wear
will continue to deliver the necessary
on-site support from our fleet of ten
mobile service vehicles.”
STOP PRESS
Customers in Humberside can look
forward to a new Pirtek Centre at
Immingham. Located across the River
Humber from Hull, Pirtek Immingham will
service local industries including the
docks, refineries and power stations as
well as the port and food production
centre of Grimsby.
Further details in the next issue
of In the Pipeline.
Quarter 1 2009

In the pipeline
11
‘In the Frame’
Happy
Birthday
Pirtek and guests celebrated its 20th anniversary in
style with a glittering party at the Park Lane Hotel in
the heart of London's West End. Photos from top
right: The British Franchise Association's Brian
Smart (above) shares a joke with Pirtek's Kelvin
Roberts; the Park Lane Hotel provided a glittering
backdrop for the festivities; the Pirtek team danced
the night away to an ABBA tribute band; and the
BFA's Brian Smart toasts Pirtek's ongoing success.
Readers of the last edition of In
the Pipeline will recall that we
launched our In the Frame
photographic competition to
capture the best shot of a Pirtek
vehicle or employee. Well we were
literally inundated with entries
from across the length and breadth
of the UK and Ireland but there was
one entrant who, according to the
judges, was the budding David
Bailey we were looking for.
David Nisbet, mobile sales and
service technician working out of
Pirtek Falkirk, grasped the
opportunity to show a flair for both
quality and quantity, delivering a
series of photos of his own mobile
service vehicle
against a huge
variety of
interesting and
unusual
backdrops, most
notably the iconic
Falkirk Wheel, the
world’s first and only
rotating boat lift.
David, shown here
receiving his prize from
Pirtek’s sales
development manager Garry
Campbell, won a Nikon D90 digital
SLR camera kit valued at £1,000.
Congratulations David and happy
snapping!
1st
COMPETITION
In addition to having just enjoyed its 20th anniversary celebrations, Pirtek has two more
major reasons to rejoice. First, the Pirtek-sponsored New Zealand team romped to an
against-the-odds victory to lift the Rugby League World Cup trophy. And then, the company
heralded in 2009 with the launch of its brand-new website (see page 3).
To celebrate these milestones, Pirtek is offering In the Pipeline readers the opportunity to
win a New Zealand rugby team shirt bearing the familiar Pirtek logo, signed by one of the
World Cup winning players. There is a second prize of a Team Eurotech racing shirt and a
third prize of a Team Eurotech polo shirt. For your chance to win, answer this simple
question: According to the Service Centre Locator on the Pirtek website, what is the
UK’s Northernmost Pirtek Centre? To enter please email to info@pirtek.co.uk.
Winners will be drawn from the correct entries received. Closing date
is 18.3.09. For further information go to pirtek.co.uk.
Quarter 1 2009

In the pipeline
Jordan joins works
Vauxhall squad
Pirtek's Andrew Jordan (above left) will race alongside Matt
Neal (centre) and reigning champion Fabrizio Giovanardi (right)
in the works VXRacing team in the 2009 HiQ MSA British
Touring Car Championship. Following a very successful test
with VXRacing in Spain during November, Andrew has been
invited to race the third works car in 2009, which represents an
amazing opportunity for the 19-year old racer.
"Following on from our presentations to everyone at Pirtek and
the very positive responses, Andrew did the test in Spain with
the factory team and impressed everyone, both in and out of
the car," says proud father Mike Jordan. "That led to the
opportunity to be the third full works driver for 2009.”
"Our initial plan was to run as an independent Vauxhall entry.
But after this opportunity arose I'm delighted to report that
Andrew Jordan of JordanSport (left) puts pen to paper with General
Motors' Keith Michaels (centre) and Pirtek's Alistair Wiggins.
we have arranged for Pirtek to become the primary
commercial backer of Andrew's car in the VXRacing team,"
Mike adds. "This is a fantastic opportunity for Pirtek and I
trust that the entire network will be excited and really get
behind the project. This will ensure massively enhanced brand
awareness for Pirtek."
All of the team's other partners will remain on board for 2009,
but Pirtek will be taking over the prime sponsor areas on
Andrew's car. "I'm absolutely thrilled with this chance," Andrew
says. "It was great to work with the VXRacing team in Spain
and it was a fantastic to see the level of engineering expertise
and back-up that comes with the best team in the BTCC."
Racing enthusiasts and BTCC fans can see Andrew Jordan and his
new works VXRacing car at the following venues during 2009:
• Rounds 1-3 - 4 to 5 April - Brands Hatch
• Rounds 4-6 - 25 to 26 April – Thruxton
• Rounds 7-9 - 16 to 17 May - Donington Park
• Rounds 10-12 - 30 to 31 May - Oulton Park
• Rounds 13-15 - 13 to 14 June – Croft
• Rounds 16-18 - 01 to 02 August – Snetterton
• Rounds 19-21 - 15 to 16 August – Knockhill
• Rounds 22-24 - 29 to 30 August – Silverstone
• Rounds 25-27 - 19 to 20 September – Rockingham
• Rounds 28-30 - 03 to 04 October - Brands Hatch
UK 0800 38 24 38 ROI 1800 74 78 35
www.pirtek-europe.com