Huws Gray was created as a one-stop shop for all building products and materials – from below ground drainage to bricks and blocks, doors, windows and roofing materials. The company prides itself on fast and efficient customer service. That means loading and unloading lorries quickly, and efficiently moving materials on-site – activities that require a dependable, well-maintained forklift truck fleet.

“Our business offers a huge diversity of goods and materials,” said Mike Cholmondley, transport manager at Huws Gray. “Along with all of our trading branches, we have our own bagging plant, wood mill, roofing truss plant, kitchen and bathroom showrooms, seven civil centres and specialist brick sites. It’s heavy work keeping materials and products flowing through these facilities, six days a week, so we need a strong, robust ‘work-horse’ that we know we can rely on.”

From the beginning, Huws Gray has used Doosan diesel counterbalance forklift trucks and over the years has steadily expanded its fleet to 148 trucks across its network – all supplied through a long-established relationship with Gwynedd Forklifts, Doosan’s local dealer.

“We depend on our truck fleet, so reliability is really important to us. Servicing and maintenance of our entire fleet is taken care of by Gwynedd Forklifts under a long-standing service contract. The backup and support we’ve had from them over the years has been excellent and I can’t fault them,” said Mr Cholmondley.

He continued: “At the beginning of the year we put together a detailed schedule for service and inspections across all the sites and they follow that through like clockwork. They’re really fast at responding to any callout too. What’s more, they have grown with us. As we have expanded they have grown their service depot network to support us.”

As well as servicing the truck fleet, Gwynedd Forklifts works with Huws Gray to specify and supply any new forklift trucks that they require. The builders’ merchant recently placed an order for 25 new Doosan D30 diesel powered counterbalance trucks, which will be delivered over the next few months.

The trucks supplied to Huws Gray have just a couple of added extras including a front and overhead screen, and on some a triplex mast for easy access to warehouse sheds and storage containers.

Huws Gray prefers a standardised truck so that flexibility can be maintained across the branch network. Trucks can then easily be moved between depots, should the need arise.