LGH and Rotrex Open an Expanded Combined Warehouse in South East London
With the core aims of driving better customer service, facilitating expansion plans and increasing investment in equipment over the coming years, sister companies LGH and Rotrex have joined forces to open a brand new warehouse in Erith, South East London. The new site, which includes a large one-acre yard and workshop facilities, follows the decision to close depots in Crayford (LGH) and Rainham (Rotrex).
The primary benefits of the flagship Erith hub for customers will be better and more centralized access for collections and deliveries and a much broader range of LGH’s hoisting, jacking, material handling and pulling equipment available for hire that will complement Rotrex's extensive fleet of winch and winch ancillary equipment. Rotrex’s 360-degree service offering will also be available.
The expanded portfolio and newly designed facilities will mean quicker response times and better shared knowledge so customers will be serviced more efficiently.
The investment in Erith follows LGH’s agreement with Rotrex in 2022 to use its base in Motherwell as a distribution center. This has acted as springboard and has helped LGH to significantly grow its presence and reach across the Central Belt of Scotland.
The new Erith site has 11 members of full-time staff. This number includes the transfer of all team members from the legacy depots as well as four new recruits. The warehouse and its operations are headed up by Paul Skingle, an experienced service center manager with 17 years of experience in winching and lifting who recently joined the business. He will report to Paul Smith, U.K. national operations manager.
Paul Smith said: “We have been carefully planning the new Erith site for a while and we believe it will be a strategic turning point for both LGH and Rotrex as we bring these two industry-leading businesses under one roof. Its location near the M25 means that we can serve London and the whole of Southern England far more efficiently and – most importantly – deliver more choice and a more rounded offering to our customers.
“This investment also includes industry-leading facilities for the testing and maintenance of our equipment, all of which will be handled by our in-house, LEEA trained engineers. We are excited to see the impact the move makes, and we are confident that it will deliver considerable added value to both the business and our customers.”
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.