North West briefs: Speedy; Rhino Doors; Zuto; EasyJet
National equipment and tool hire firm Speedy has opened a service centre in east Anglia where it is supporting track maintenance and renewal contractors across the region.
The site, which opened near Bury St Edmunds, is providing low-emission tools and equipment to rail contractors operating across Cambridge, Peterborough, Norwich, Ipswich, Essex and the wider region.
The centre is supporting Stratford based contractor 1stinrail to shrink the overall carbon footprint of its projects, in order to meet Network Rail’s 2021 target for fossil fuel-free sites.
The contractor is hiring a variety of sustainable battery-powered assets for rail welding, track placement, renewal and maintenance projects from the Speedy specialist service centre.
The opening of the specialist rail centre is also significantly reducing mileage in 1stinrail’s supply chain, by cutting the distance that hire equipment needs to travel.
Previously, specialist rail equipment would need to be sourced from providers in South Yorkshire or the West Midlands.
Daryl Doherty, director of rail at Speedy, said: “The Anglia region’s rail contractors have historically been underserviced by hire providers with equipment having to travel so far to reach them. This has put them at a disadvantage for achieving environmental targets due to the emissions associated with high levels of delivery miles.
“Supporting sustainability in the supply chain is critically important to us, with the location of this depot being equally as important to the significant range of eco equipment we’re providing.
“Many rail contractors’ contracts are still in their infancy, and are bound to the industry’s sustainability goals, so it will be crucial for their projects to meet carbon savings in the near term.”
Jamie Kelly, director of 1stinrail said: “The Anglia rail specialist service centre has slashed the distance our equipment deliveries have to travel when working on local projects like the improvement works at Whittlesea Station in Peterborough.
“Previously, we would have had to travel almost 100 miles to source tools and equipment, but the new depot has more than cut this in half, significantly reducing our emissions.”
Rhino Doors, specialists in design and manufacture of high-performance engineered doors, has announced the rebranding of its parent company to Rhino Engineering Group as part of ambitious growth-driven changes to its organisational structure.
REGL sits above Rhino Doors – which will continue to manage door design, manufacture and assembly – as well as the newly launched Rhino Site Systems, which will specialise in aftersales products and services.
The company, which has been trading for over 25 years and has sites in Lancashire and South Wales, has formed the group to facilitate expansion of its offering and has promoted several key staff members to senior group leadership positions in the process.
The announcement comes after Rhino Doors recently secured two new contracts with Transport for London, working on projects for Bank and Moorgate Stations.
The acquisition of these contracts has played a key role in their recent growth, allowing them to scale up their services, develop their customer base, and deliver focused, high-level services to clients across a range of sectors.
REGL has plans for its continued expansion, with announcements due to be made over the coming months.
Newly promoted group managing director, Stuart Lawrence, said: “I am extremely proud to be involved with the Rhino brand which, over the past five years, has transformed itself into one of the leading providers of high-performance, bespoke door sets and barriers, more than tripling our size in the same period.
“The creation of Rhino Engineering Group with separate trading entities will allow us to grow further and faster, focusing on core activities.”
Joining Stuart in the new Group Management team are group commercial director, Jan McPherson; group engineering director, Dr Chris Norris; and group finance director, Stewart Handler.
Manchester car finance provider Zuto and personal loan lenders, Lendable, have collaborated to develop a new product.
Autolend is a hire purchase product for car finance, exclusively available through Zuto.
The technology driven product has been created to make the car finance process smoother and quicker for customers.
Customers will be shown their eligibility upfront, and are given instant decisions and pre-approvals.
This means they thy will very quickly know what their monthly repayments will be.
The launch of the product comes after recent regulatory changes in the Motor finance industry earlier this year, around commission models and disclosure.
Jo Robinson, head of lender development at Zuto said: “Pairing Lendable’s experience in consumer credit with Zuto’s expertise in the car finance market made perfect sense.
“We’ve worked with the Lendable team to develop this exciting new Hire Purchase product Autolend and we’re excited to see what customers think of it.”
Chris Bosworth, head of motor finance at Lendable, said: “At Lendable, we have the expertise in providing pre-approved, risk-based priced consumer credit to simplify car finance.
“Pre-approvals, guaranteed real rates and risk-based pricing are all strong features, but the main benefit to consumers is transparency.
“Giving the customer control to pick the right financing for their needs is important to us, especially in what is a relatively opaque market historically.”
easyJet has launched the first flight on its new domestic summer route from John Lennon Liverpool Airport to Bournemouth Airport, providing customers in the North West region direct connectivity to explore more of the UK this summer.
Flights from John Lennon Liverpool Airport took off on Saturday 10 July at 06:10 for the first time and is now operating twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Ali Gayward, easyJet’s UK Country Manager, said: “We are delighted to have launched of our first flight from Liverpool to Bournemouth.
“This new route further strengthens our network from Liverpool and provides more connectivity for our customers whether they are reuniting with loved ones, connecting for business, or want to explore more of the UK this summer.
“We are proud to be the largest airline in Liverpool and remain committed to offering customers great value fares and more choice when they fly with us.”
Paul Winfield, Liverpool John Lennon Airport’s Director of Aviation Development added: “It’s great to see easyJet start this service in time for the start of the school holidays giving families across the region the opportunity to travel to the south coast far faster and easier than by car or train.
It also gives people in the south the chance to take a short flight and come and visit Liverpool and surrounding areas with all its great visitor attractions too.”
