HUBTEX Australia CEO, Bruce Peatman, takes MHD through the company’s upward trajectory navigating its customers’ narrow aisle needs and providing long load solutions for bulky goods.
When it comes to operating forklifts within narrow aisles in the material handling industry, an issue that many have faced is being able to carry long load products safely. HUBTEX Australia is in a unique position to address this challenge.
HUBTEX is a leading supplier of multi-directional forklifts and side loader fork trucks for handling long loads in narrow aisles. As an authorised distributer of global brands such as HUBTEX, Bendi, Drexel, Bulmor, Systraplan and Hoppecke, the material handling industry has benefited from its tailor-made solutions for more than 25 years.
“The niche was to offer a machine that was a safer alternative to the way people were working with long products,” HUBTEX Australia CEO Bruce Peatman says.
“Our machines can drive in all directions. We can unload a pack of timber off a truck, drive through a normal roller door into a factory, and store that pack of timber in racks in a guided aisle. If you’re handling long products in narrow aisles, that’s the machinery that we provide.”
Founded in 1995 and based in Riverstone in NSW, the original company Parry Forklifts changed name to HUBTEX Australia in 2000, and changed ownership in 2020. HUBTEX Australia initially specialised in textiles machinery and expanded to include machinery for other materials like timber, steel, and plastic. During 2020 ownership transition, founder Bill Parry passed over the reins to Bruce, while remaining in a managerial capacity, ensuring that the best of the Hubtex Australia traditions continue under the new owner.
While big players in the materials handling space primarily specialise in handling pallets, Bruce says the HUBTEX point of difference lies in handling long products in a narrow space – and maximising storage capacity for its customers.
“For example, we have the Bendi forklift, which is great for handling pallets in very narrow aisles,” Bruce says. “When you’re talking narrow aisles and space saving, that’s where we come in.
“We’re not competing with other forklift companies – we serve a niche market for someone who wants to maximise their storage capacity. Everything is based around that narrow aisle philosophy.”
In a climate where industrial vacancy rates are tight, HUBTEX Australia is particularly able to service growing companies that need to access more space in their warehouses.
“A company who we’ve dealt with for quite a few years have experienced phenomenal growth and they have a real need to automate at some point. But in the meantime, they need to store more product, and they’re looking at their storage density and how to improve it,” Bruce explains.
“They’ve worked out that per square metre, they can double their storage space by using our equipment – high bay racking, narrow aisles, and store the product with that. That will create 100 per cent more storage capacity.”
Another differentiator of HUBTEX Australia is its strong service philosophy, which has been present from day one – and has grown with the company, with offices in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. Illustrating its high customer retention, HUBTEX’s very first customers are still with them today, Bruce says.
“It’s something we’re proud of, and we never rest in trying to keep it going and improve it,” he says. “We want to keep growing, providing a good service to our customers so that when it comes down to buying new equipment, we’re the first port of call.”
With a vast amount of parts in stock around the country, HUBTEX aims to provide its customers with easy access to after sales support regardless of their location.
“We’ve always carried a lot more spare parts than other dealers and we carry them as close to the machines as we possibly can,” Bruce says.
HUBTEX also ramped up its new Hubtex and Bendi equipment stock to deliver anywhere quickly during the pandemic.
For the future of HUBTEX, Bruce expresses a desire to branch out further into New Zealand and Asia.
“New Zealand is a market that we already service, but we would love to be positioned there in our own right. Also, we have Asia on our doorsteps and there’s every possibility that we can service Asia from our base in Australia,” he says.
“It’s a huge market that’s under-supplied at the moment in terms of multi directional sideloaders, and we think that this could be a good regional headquarters that we could run the Asian operations from.”
For more information on HUBTEX, click here.
.png){kind=logo}
.jpg)
