We are in England and here begins the story of a branch, which has become one of the most important in the Benincà Group. Let’s try to understand something more through the words of Jamie Berry, the branch manager since 2015.
How did the story of the Benincà brand in England begin?
The Benincà product has been available in the UK market for a very long time through a small number of distributors, one based in the South and two in the North. The UK market has a thirst for quality and reliability so the Benincà product has always had a huge potential within the country. In 2010 the potential was realised when one central branch was created and Benincà Automation UK Ltd was formed. After two fast years of growth The Benincà Group established the branch as a subsidiary of the company.
As a subsidiary, Benincà UK was established in 2012, what were the first initiatives undertaken?
We had to create a professional platform for our installing customers to work from, quicker access to products and greater access to other brands within the Group such as Hi Motions, RISE and CAB. We moved to larger premises in August 2012 to make this possible. We also had to work on increasing the brand awareness within the UK to what was still a lesser known product within the market place. In doing so we create an online presence through our trade website and we travelled far and wide across the country introducing our product to professional gate installers. In this first year as a subsidiary we achieved huge company growth and created partnerships with some top installers within the UK which have remained very loyal to this day.
What are the most representative products in your market? / Which products are the most representative in your market?
We have a big demand for underground operators in the UK market, with a hardwood close boarded gate being very popular to British homeowners so the inconspicuous design of underground operators proves, more often than not, the favoured choice. In recent years with the introduction of encoder technology on the DU.IT and DU.350 motors, our sales for these products has increased dramatically, keeping the warehouse team very busy!
What instruments and services have turned out to be essential to make your #automationspecialist grow?
We pride ourselves on our level of customer service and even as a small team, we have many years of experience within the industry so we are able to help our customer with most things. Whilst the UK has adopted and embraced a greater focus on Gate Safety we have created relationships with other suppliers of safety products and with leading industry bodies such as the DHF Door and Hardware Federation. With these strong relationships and a high level of training for our staff we have been able to provide knowledge to our customers and assisted them to understand their safety requirements which has been rewarded in a loyalty to our brand. We have also expanded our premises in Newbury, Berkshire to have a state of the art training facility where we welcome our installing customers for free product training to help them better understand the installation and the products they choose to install.
Who is in your team and what is their role?
Mark Crewe – Technical Manager
Jack Crawford – National Sales Coordinator
Tim Hodges – Sales Executive (Technical Sales)
Ben Smith – Sales & Warehouse Support
Jo Christian – Office Manager & Credit Control Coordinator
Georgia Dovey – Administration assistant
Marc Smith – Warehouse Manager
David Berry – Warehouse Assistant
Ambitions and future plans? The future is very bright for Benincà in the UK and I am very ambitious and passionate about how far the company can progress within the market. We have worked very hard to get where we are today but we know there is yet more hard work to be done. We are working on new premises, a purpose-built building close to 10’000sq feet within the same location as we are currently, which should be ready to unveil in 2018. With our new building we can again take further steps to increase stock holding once more and bring in even more quality products from within the Benincà Group of companies.
