Exceptional Service Everytime

Eastern Storage Equipment Ltd was established by Brian Francis in 1975 selling shelving, racking and associated storage equipment, in the early 1980’s we underwent a step change and have been trading very successfully since, we now have 21 dedicated and experienced staff working within our three divisions:

• Since 1990 ESE Cloakrooms has been designing and manufacturing cloakroom seating, changing room benches, peg rails, wall fixed shelving and clothing racks to suit mainly the leisure, education, emergency services, sports and health sectors plus commercial changing facilities in larger businesses. We now manufacture Four Unique Ranges containing 21 variations of cloakroom benches (including the Stainless Steel ranges launched in 2011) and 6 variations of changing room accessories, all available in five standard sizes from 1m to 3m wide and six colour choices. Our cloakroom equipment is regularly specified by architects and designers and sold to main contractors, business mail order catalogues, via ‘approved distributors’ and direct to end users. We are confident we can provide strong and competitive solutions to meet your needs from our standard ranges, or we will design and manufacture a cost effective bespoke system to suit your exact requirements.
• Since 1984 ESE Direct has been supplying over 20,000 industrial /commercial products from cable protectors and safety barriers through first aid kits and signs to workbenches, cupboards / lockers (and including shelving and racking obviously). We supply to more than 6,000 clients spread across the public sector, emergency services, all sizes of businesses, organisations and charities via our own comprehensive free mail order catalogue, and since 2000 via our unique secure Online shop. Even in the current economic climate ESE continues to grow year on year and online sales now account for more than 65% of turnover even though we are currently still a UK only supplier. You can order online, by email, live chat, phone, fax or even still by ‘snail mail’ if you prefer.
• Since 1983 ESE Projects has been designing, supplying and undertaking refurbishment contracts in offices, warehouses, factories, leisure facilities, retail premises, trade counters and stores / stock rooms. Using the latest software and our extensive industry experience to ensure the most cost-effective, ergonomic and practical solutions are offered to suit your requirements and budget. Whether your project is under a thousand pounds or worth hundreds of thousands of pounds we will always strive to offer the highest quality finish and customer service possible. We have extremely experienced specialists in office partitions, industrial steel partitioning systems, mobile shelving, racking and mezzanine floors of all types. We have access to many highly recommended related trades and can compile a full package as principal contractors or work closely with other contractors on your site as part of a larger team. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss your requirements in detail.

As a long established, stable, family business history and a sense of belonging is very important to us, this is a brief synopsis of the key milestones that have led to ESE becoming one of the leading suppliers of industrial / commercial products to businesses and organisations across the UK.

January 1975 – Established by Brian Francis, ESE originally operated from a small summerhouse in his back garden. Primarily selling Shelving and Racking as he had been working for many years in this industry as the top sales person for Link51 one of the leading manufacturers.

1980 – Rapid expansion led to a number of moves, culminating in a final relocation to our current headquarters in Northumberland Street, Norwich. It is from this location we continue to serve our loyal and extremely varied customer base throughout the UK.

1983 – Supply and Installation of Mezzanine Floors, Office Partitioning and Industrial Steel Partitions were added to the portfolio and the offices were first refurbished to provide a working showroom of the types of products / services we could provide our clients (since refurbished and extended numerous times).

1984 – First 128 page Mail Order Catalogue was despatched and the product range was expanded by approximately 4,000 items to include handling equipment, trucks / trolleys, signs, noticeboards, first aid kits, litter / wheelie bins, ladders, lockers and workbenches.

1989 – Development of Northumberland Street commenced, seeing ESE purchase the land in front of their offices and build an additional 6,000sq ft of ground floor storage space, as well as adding mezzanine floors and racking floors to the existing 6,600sq ft to improve facilities.

1990 – Cloakroom Seating manufacturing division was established and the first Versa range of cloakroom benches were designed in-house and sold primarily through other B2B mail order catalogues.

1997 – First fairly basic Brochure Website was launched (when most competitors did not even have a website).

1999 – Brian's eldest son, Simon took over as Managing Director (having started in 1984 in the warehouse and gained experience across the business first, like many of our team). The business started to grow beyond expectations with the customer base more than trebling and turnover increasing and plans were put in place for year on year growth.

2000 – First full Online Ordering Website was launched containing all 7,500 products from our 300 page business mail order catalogue.

2003 – Changing Room Bench ranges we manufacture were fully redesigned and cost engineered in conjunction with some of our Architect / Main Contractor clients, to ensure we continue to provide benches with industry leading seat strength, easy on-site assembly, the best range of 'standard sizes' and common 'core components' to aid product versatility and reduce stocked variations.

2004 – Online sales became an increasingly important part of our business model so independent websites were created for each division to enable more detailed and specific product information to be displayed to our 'core products' www.esedirect.co.uk - www.eseprojects.co.uk - www.cloakroomseating.co.uk As a result online business more than doubled in that year.

2007 – In 2007/8/9 ESE entered a number of National and Regional Awards for customer service, use of technology and business growth and were lucky enough to have won or been finalists in 80% of all entered.

2008 – Was the best year in our 33 year history with increased sales, significantly increased customer numbers who were spread across the entire UK (only 4 postal districts not supplied) and we supplied products to more than 190 different industries. Two new cloakroom bench ranges were designed and the existing 18 year old range was given a makeover to bring it upto date and to reflect the latest requirements from Sport England and the Football Foundation.

2009 – Launched two new cloakroom ranges - Budget range an ex stock changing room bench seating for the construction industry and – Club range aesthetically pleasing designer cloakroom benches with round frame legs at extremely competitive prices. We decided to create our First in-house B2B mail order catalogue instead of relying on ‘external providers’ who determined the content and pricing for us. The last four months of the year were spent almost entirely analysing all product ranges, suppliers performance / prices / lead times etc to ensure our new catalogue and website would offer the Best Products at the Best Prices in a more customer friendly way, as well as ensuring we provided quantity discounts and enough information to enable an informed purchasing decision.

2010 – Another record year, we launched our First new 352 page mail order catalogue along with brand new in-house designed and created online ordering website and E-catalogue, resulting in a 33% increase in sales and 69% increase in customers. We recruited four new team members to improve admin and maintain customer service and totally refurbished our offices / facilities to accommodate them and the extra team members starting in early 2011.

2011 – Another record year, an Operations Director was appointed to improve our business processes and manage our growth. We also employed five extra sales and customer service staff to ensure our customers remained our top priority and we now have 21 staff. Our IT systems were upgraded to automate as much as possible and enable ESE to handle the much larger volumes of orders / enquiries we now receive. The improved 2011 catalogue was launched with 1,100 New products among 400 pages of seriously competitive quality products. A new range of Stainless Steel Cloakroom Seating with compact laminate seats or all stainless was also launched aimed at the swimming pool and hygiene markets.

2012 – The Mail order catalogue has been revamped again to improve layouts and provide more information to enable an informed purchasing decision. It also contains 800 new products and 3,000 reduced prices, with approx 70% of all products being made in the UK. New websites are in the process of being created and we plan to offer double the current number of seriously good industrial products to you our valued customers within the next twelve months.

Public Sector

Last year alone we managed to supply 604 public sector organisations including:

• 250 – Schools / Colleges
• 109 – Council Departments
• 104 – Government Organisations
• 58 – Universities
• 29 – Hospitals
• 19 – Armed Forces Divisions
• 17 – Emergency Services
• 11 – Prisons
• 7 – Museums

We have also supplied product to or carried out work for thousands of Prestigious customers including:

Major Business

Baxi Heating – Baxter Healthcare – Bespak – Britvic – Calor Gas – Coca Cola – Dolby Laboratories – Dominos Pizza – Dorma UK – Dow Corning – Estee Lauder – Exxon Mobil – Fujitsu – Genevac – Glaxo Smith Kline – H J Heinz – Indesit –Institute of Food Research – Johnson & Johnson – Nestle – Nisa – Pizza Express –Shell UK – Smith & Nephew – Unilever

Facilities Management / Construction

Babcock – Balfour Beatty – Bam Nuttall – Celotex – Corillion – Costain – Covion – Hanson – Kier – Lafarge – Mansell – May Gurney – Mitie – Serco – Vitra

Government / National Interest

Balmoral Estates – DEFRA – English Heritage – Foreign & Commonwealth Office – HM Customs & Excise – HMRC – IOD – MOD – Royal Commission– Royal Mail –The Met Office – The Royal Mint

Sport

Arsenal FC – Cardiff City FC – Celtic Manor Resort – Chelsea FC – Derby County FC – Formula One Management – Norwich City FC – Royal St Davids Golf Club – Stenhousemuir FC

Motors / Vehicles

Caterham Air Asia F1 – Caterpillar – Lotus Cars –Mercedes Benz – McLaren F1 – Michelin Tyres – Nissan – Rolls Royce – Tesla Motors – Volvo Construction – Williams F1

Travel

City Airport London – Gatwick Airport – Great Western Railways – Manchester Airport – Network Rail – Northern Rail – P&O Ferries – Southern Railways – Stena Sealink Ferries

Aviation

Atlantic Airlines – BAE Systems – Easyjet – Lockheed Martin – Lufthansa – Monarch – Thomson Airways

Retail

Aldi – Burberry – Comet – House of Fraser – John Lewis – LK Bennett – Lush – Sainsburys – Selfridges – TM Lewin

Charities

British Red Cross – Help for Heroes – Mencap – NSPCC – Oxfam – RSPB – Samaritans – Scope – St John Ambulance

Banking / Finance

Bank of Scotland– Camelot Lotteries – Capital One PLC – Deutsche Bank – Santander – Virgin Money

TV / Entertainment

BBC – Channel 4 – National Gallery – QVC – Royal Opera House

Tourism

BeWilderwood – Centre Parcs – Drayton Manor Theme Park

Hotels / Pubs

Holiday Inns – Intercontinental Hotels – Leisure Inns – Victoria Inns

Utilities / Services

Anglian Water – EDF – EON – Northumbrian Water – Severn Trent Water – Siemens – South West Water

Corporate Responsibility

ESE firmly believes that CSR is an integral part of our business and we are dedicated to making a positive contribution to our communities, being a good employer and minimising our environmental impact.

Our Workplace

ESE is committed to providing good workplace standards for everyone.

• We have recently refurbished our premises to create additional space and an enhanced working environment / facilities for our dedicated team at the same time as reducing our carbon footprint and utilities consumption.
• We are committed to employing a diverse workforce to assist in meeting the needs of a diverse customer base.
• It is our policy to provide staff with training and career development so they can grow and develop within the company; many of our team are long serving employees which is testament to the support and development that each individual receives.
• We offer flexible working to enable individuals to balance the needs and demands of both their home and work lives.

Essentially we want our team to be happy and engaged at work and as passionate about our business as we are, as we know this leads to the very best in customer service delivery.

Our Culture

At ESE we encourage our team to:

• Treat all customers and suppliers the same way as we would expect to be treated as individuals.
• Develop long term partnerships with suppliers, customers and colleagues that are mutually beneficial to all.
• Always work in an honest and open manner ensuring that our pricing is transparent and that we are proactive in our customer service delivery.
• Be polite and respectful to everyone and to assist each other both in and out of work as we are still a family run business.

Our Environment

ESE aims to sustain and improve our natural environment for the benefit of all and we are committed to:

• Continual improvement in our environmental performance by improving the efficiency with which we use resources and comply with relevant environmental regulation and legislation.
• Investing in technology to minimise the use of paper / materials with the aim of moving to a paperless office. Any waste paper is shredded, recycled and made into animal bedding.
• Reducing, reusing or recycling packing materials such as steel / wood / cardboard and consumables such as plastic / inks / toners etc wherever possible.
• Encouraging our staff to share transport, use cycles or walk to work wherever possible.

Our Communities

ESE is an active member of our local community.

• We make a positive contribution to local communities by bringing jobs for local people.
• We use as many local suppliers as possible to benefit the local economy.
• Our Directors work with local causes such as Nelson's Spirit, Nelson's Journey and The Hamlet Centre, we contribute to other local causes involving our team as much as possible.

Email:	sales@ese.co.uk
Phone:	01603 629 956
Fax:	01603 630 113
Head Office Address:	Wensum Works 150 Northumberland Street Norwich Norfolk NR2 4EE
Company Registration:	1279230
VAT Registration No:	287 8262 10

If you are in doubt about the suitability of any product please contact us for unbiased, friendly and free advice.

In addition to our office sales team, we have extremely experienced and friendly field sales engineers happy to visit you whether you are in Norwich, Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds, Colchester, Chelmsford, Cambridge, Kings Lynn, Peterborough, Harlow, London, Luton, Stevenage, Milton Keynes, Bedford, Northampton, Corby, Coventry, Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Maidstone, Tonbridge, Edenbridge, Crawley, Guildford, Slough or just about anywhere else for that matter, and provide free no obligation advice / quotations.