It all started as a throwback to the logistics side of our business.
We were working with companies that had large contracts shipping high end scientific equipment. It started back when photo processing was done on heavy duty machines.
We used to do a lot of work for Kodak and Naritsu, and the logistics companies used trolleys and pallet trucks, but would generally be delivering to stores from the side of a lorry in the middle of a busy British high Street, and be expected to get up over curbs and into a sort of Boots or a chemist or wherever was needing these photo labs. We started developing really specialist, tailor made covers that protected to a high standard but were portable and breathable.
Now we are dealing with things such as X-ray machines and medical equipment with highly sensitive parts. We have clients who are transporting probes with ultrasonic transducers that are up to £20,000 each. If these transducers get damaged then the whole unit needs to be replaced, so when you’re looking at sort of tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage causing no end of problems, they needed protection they could rely on.
We also work with companies who are sending their sales reps into hospitals and wanted to know what we could do for their sales equipment. We have been providing bespoke kit bags for the window industry for years so we took our learnings from there and just looked at providing extra protection for their more specific issues.
We had to use bacterial resistant materials to keep surfaces well sanitised.
We incorporated mats into the back shelf of the sales person’s estate cars that would then fold out and work as a ramp so they weren’t damaging the equipment or their cars.
We added a display station and sales kit to the bags, so all their brochures and sales materials would be easily accessible in folders and document wallets right there in the transport bags.
We added branding through silk screen printing and heat transfers. This meant clients can have multi colour logos visible on the protective gear to help with brand awareness during transportation.