For a Company that has only been going for less than three years, the reputation that Bate’s Tool Hire has acquired has been built purely on old-fashioned virtues. These include a professional, courteous service, a reliable service and quick delivery in case of problems.
Mark Bate, Company Owner and Director, says, “I had been working for seven years as a depot manager for another tool hire company and began to feel that not only could I do the job better but also, I began to feel why should I do this for someone else when I could be doing it for myself. I also wanted to do some things differently.”
The Company is based in Oldbury, close to the M5 and M6 motorways and in the heart of the industrial Black Country. Currently, the Company serves the whole of the West Midlands plus Birmingham, as far south as Droitwich and Worcester and as far east as Coventry. However, the majority of the customers are based locally and many come in and collect, particularly for the smaller hand tools and consumables, such as drill bits and grinding/cutting discs.
Mark says, “We are trying to offer a different range of services rather than just copying everyone else. One such aspect is in the repair service that we offer. For professional hand tools, we will take a free look at the unit and then give the customer a quote for the repair. Because of our relationship with our suppliers, we can generally get spares within 24 hours and so can offer a quick turnround. Once the item has been repaired, we give the parts that we have replaced back to the customer so that they can see what we have done. We find that this is a service that is in growing demand because so many companies simply refuse to carry out repairs, preferring instead to sell a replacement tool.”
Another new service that is in growing demand is in printing on high-visibility waistcoats/vests. “We started offering this and more and more of our customers are asking for it.”
The Company is open 5½ days a week with four members of staff. Increasingly, Mark is finding that a growing number of customers come in for one item, perhaps to hire and then make a number of impulse purchases of items such as drill bits, cutting and grinding discs and safety equipment. They have two vehicles – a Ford transit pickup for bigger items and a Navarra pickup that is used largely for emergency delivery of small items.
In conclusion, Mark says, “Our ethos is ‘providing solutions to your problems’ but not just providing solutions but importantly doing it with a big emphasis on customer care and service. We try to offer a ‘Golden Service’ and I feel that the amount of repeat business that we get reflects the success of this policy. Although we have been going for about two and a half years, our business has grown and continues to go from strength to strength, despite the current recession.”
For further information please telephone 0121 552 4969 or visit http://www.batestoolhire.co.uk
