From left to right, Geoff Oswald, John Gumley and Scott Glanville celebrate the Colby Distributor of the year announcement.

Colby Distributor of the Year: Colby Storage Solutions Adelaide

Colby Storage Solutions Adelaide has been providing innovative storage solutions to the South Australian market for over 25 years and following a record year the company was recently awarded ‘Colby distributor of the year’.

Colby Storage Solutions Adelaide was started by John Gumley and Geoff Oswald back in 1982, as GO Shelving, and it became a Colby distributor in 1992.

According to John Gumley the success of the company is based on its fundamental understanding of customer requirements, the good team he has around him and the support from Dematic which owns and manages the brand.

“We are a very solutions focused organisation,” he said, “we listen to the customer, understand their requirements and design the solution accordingly. Our team is in the market every day and we constantly have customers tell us that we ‘talk sense’ rather than ‘talk cents’ which seems to be the focus of some of our competitors,” he said.

“As a business we obviously set a business plan at the start of the year and set our salesmen, of which we have four, achievable sales budgets,” said Gumley. “We are also set targets by Dematic in terms of the amount of product they expect us to order throughout the year and we managed to exceed both. It’s the first time we’ve won the award and we couldn’t be happier,” he said.

The Adelaide market has been relatively buoyant with a number of new warehouses and distribution centres constructed over the last 12 months.

“We’ve been really successful with a number of new customers and major projects,” said Gumley, “and we also managed to break into customers that have been purchasing and operating competitive brands for many years.

“Our success has also come from new customers wanting to see who is out there and what type of solutions are on offer,” he said. “We’ve secured a number of contracts through word of mouth, happy customers referring us on. Organic growth with existing customers for relocations and upgrades of existing storage systems was a factor in what has been a big year for us”.

According to Gumley, there are two key factors that enabled his organisation to win the award.

“When we started Colby Adelaide (G.O Shelving) there were two of us, Geoff and myself, we now have a staff of 32 and like any business they are the key to our success,” he said.

“From our sales staff, general management, accounts, warehouse and installation teams we have personnel that have been with us for many years, they understand our business and most importantly they understand the business of our customers. The second factor is the support we receive from Dematic, without which we wouldn’t be the business we are today.”

“In an increasingly competitive market, influenced by a number factors, we have to ensure our solutions are price competitive and that we deliver in full, on time and on budget,” he said. “In many instances delivery times have been a major factor on projects, with the backing of Dematic and the inherent flexibility of the manufacturing plant in Belrose, Sydney, we have managed to offer lead times our competitors can’t get close to.”

Tony Woodlock, General Manager, Dematic Storage and Equipment Division, couldn’t be happier for the team at Colby Storage Solutions Adelaide.

“John and his team have done a great job for Colby Storage Solutions over the years and they thoroughly deserve this award. I am delighted for them. As well as achieving the relevant criteria they also make an outstanding contribution to the distributor team,” he said. “We have an annual conference for all our distributors as well as distributor principle meetings three or four times a year. It’s at these meeting that the experience of John and his team is most valued. With his help, we are able to work on strategies that assist our distributor network to be even more responsive to customer demands and ensure we maintain the values that the Colby brand stands for,” he said.

For more information, please contact Tony Woodlock:
tony.woodlock@dematic.com
Ph. 61 (3) 9535 3510