17 Jun Proud partnerships: Armstrong Logistics and Gray & Adams
Gray & Adams customer, Armstrong Logistics are a growing UK business, working primarily within the discounter supermarket sector and they have recently just placed a large order of 40 Gray & Adams trailers this year. We caught up with Operations Director, Neil Watton to talk about the successful relationship between our businesses.
Armstrong Logistics has been a thriving UK business for 26 years who have managed to stay fully operational throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the business has grown significantly from 1 site to 4 over the years. Armstrong have recently moved their HQ to a new site that boasts 50 loading bays to maximise their customer capacity and operational efficiency.
The business is robust, efficient and forward thinking which makes them an ideal match to their customer base. This means, when choosing a partner to build their trailers, they looked to Gray & Adams.
When discussing the value that Gray & Adams trailers has brought to the business, Operations Director, Neil, tells us, “I’ve worked for Armstrong for around 7 years now and prior to that I was in the logistics team at Aldi so I’ve always been aware of Gray & Adam’s trailers and the quality of the build, quite frankly they would be my first choice for refrigerated trailers. The longevity is second to none and I can regularly get 10 – 15 years out of a G&A trailer which makes them worth every penny in my opinion. I’ve been in this industry for a long time and whenever we’ve used other trailers that are not Gray & Adams built, they just don’t last as long and they can’t handle as much knocking about!”
Both businesses pride themselves on their customer service and Armstrong Logistics felt that using companies with similar values in their supply chain would contribute towards the reputation for customer care that is at the core of their operations. When discussing this, Neil gave us some further insights, “Apart from the quality, I keep coming back to Gray & Adams because I feel that their customer service is first class and it’s something that we at Armstrong also try and emulate.”
He goes on, “I’ve found the sales team to be really friendly and they treat you like a trusted partner which is great. I’ve been to trade shows and visited their stand over the years and even the times where I wasn’t placing an order, they still treated me as a valued part of their business and it’s those sorts of touches which make me want to deal with them again and again. We’ve just placed a large order of 40 trailers, the biggest so far but I can’t see any reason why I wouldn’t go back for further orders over the coming years”.
When discussing the future for the logistics industry, Neil provided some comments from Armstrong’s perspective, “The landscape that we are operating in has changed significantly over the last couple of years, with Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic being the main factors. We have been fortunate enough to remain fully operational throughout but one thing that may be a challenge to the logistics industry going forward is a potential skills gap forming with drivers. We offer driver training to try and attract as many people to the industry as we can and encourage logistics as an attractive career option, especially to young people who may be struggling to get their foot on the career ladder post-pandemic”
He continues, “It’s something we need to consider when looking to the future of our business. Another thing that is important to us is the security and safety of our fleet, this is a key driver for us when we are renewing and purchasing. The business is moving away from curtainsiders and looking at more rigids as the way forward and for that, Gray & Adams is the best option. The rigids are very robust, durable and we don’t have the worry of security of the load being compromised on the journey like you would with a curtainsider. It gives us and our customers peace of mind”
To learn more about Armstrong Logistics, please visit www.armstrong-logistics.co.uk