Moving goods of all shapes and sizes? We can handle it!

STARTED in June 2001 Handle-iT, designs and manufactures manual handling equipment, (trolleys) for use in industry, distribution, manufacturing and retail.

Started by managing director Daniel Farrar, a former sales director in the forklift truck industry, who noticed there was a gap in the marketplace for a company to design customer specific products, to help move customers’ goods safely and productively.

The company, based just outside Ipplepen, has more than 9,500 customers in 41 countries across five continents. They include the likes of Booker Cash and Carry, BP in Iraq, Black & Decker Dewalt, Rolls Royce, Mercedes McLaren High Per- formance engines, Red Bull Racing and 38 of the UK’s FTSE top 100 companies.

Handle-iT specialises in taking customers’ handling needs and designing wheeled trolleys to move them safely and efficiently. It is working on projects for Souq.com, the North African arm of Amazon, Princess Yachts, in Plymouth and Transport for London which are either at the manufacturing or design stages.

Daniel, who started the company at the age of 29 said, “with health and safety becoming ever more prevalent, and efficiency being paramount to growth in the UK economy, our business is just going from strength to strength, we use some clever design ideas and techniques to produce light weight products that come with remarkable strength to ensure that our products help our customers gain the competitive advantage in the distribution cycle, whilst ensuring that our customers remain safe, from injury and lawyers.”

The company made a strategic decision in 2016 to look at the world market in airport trolleys, with the airport industry showing consistent growth now for over 20 years, and plans afoot around the world to develop capacity in all airport scenarios, both small and large to cope with the increases in passenger numbers created by not only low cost airlines, but also the reduction in costs of long haul flights as competition increases from around the world, particularly the Middle and Far East. This has the inevitable effect that airports will need more carts, after a lot of marketing activity throughout 2016, and structuring an exclusive deal with a Chinese factory to manufacture airport carts that Handle-iT were instrumental in designing.

Daniel said: “2017 was a fairly hard year with a lot of activity but very few orders, however we were confident 2018 would be the year where we cracked this very closed market, when we came very close to securing the work for Gatwick Airport, which we were only invited to tender for to make up the numbers. This market has been monopolised now by German and French manufacturer for the past 60 years. Sometimes you can see when big world-wide companies, have a market place to themselves for a long period, as they can become complacent, bloated and sluggish in their reactions to their customers’ demands.”

The year has started phenomenally for Handle-iT. It secured a deal to equip the new terminal at Mactan-Cebu International Airport in June. The airport deal is the kind of reference site that will open many other doors. “With other contracts secured, for the US Air Force, MTR Corporation Kowloon Bay High Speed Rail Link from Hong Kong to Guangzhou in the heart of the South China Industrial Zone, Dublin’s Incheon Railway Station, and a recent contract with the USAF, it has been a great half year so far, and with still more in the offing in Ghana, Sudan, Qatar, Sri Lanka and Malaysia still to happen this year, as well a London City Airport, Edinburgh Airport and Inverness Airport pencilled in for the start of next year, we are feeling extremely confident about the next few years” Daniel added.

Handle-iT has also moved to larger premises in Bulleigh Barton Industrial Estate, Ipplepen, a few minutes from its current location, which will provide further scope for expansion as well as a better space for a more productive and efficient operation.

Pallet movers made by Handle-iT