![Slingsby: Link back to the Homepage - Access Key [1]](http://www.slingsby.com/images/logos/slingsby.gif)
History
How it all started
The Slingsby story begins back in 1893, when the family firm Wholesale Bottlers established themselves in Bradford. Harry Crowther Slingsby, Managing Director, began to look into the invention of labour saving devices for the company. He'd recognised that working practices in the local factories relied heavily on manual hauling and gravity for the movement of raw materials and products from floor to floor. However, this didn't solve the problem of moving items horizontally around large buildings. So, Harry set about creating robust trucks and trolleys to move heavy loads with relative ease. Different designs were created for different purposes - sack trolleys for moving large sacks of flour, sugar and dried fruit around grocery stores; high wheeled flat carts towed by one or two people; trucks fitted with wicker baskets carried fibres around textile mills.
Who we are
We still retain the name of our founder, Harry, and his innovative attitude to business. In 1961 the company went public and became HC Slingsby PLC.
Today, several members of the Slingsby family remain on the board of directors and continue to drive the business forward through the 21st Century.
Since the early years, as well as consistently improving our manufacturing pedigree through investment in new technology, we've expanded our product range dramatically. Although famous originally for manual handling equipment, today, our latest catalogue features a range of over 35,000 essential products for the workplace, providing more choice and a credible single source solution for all our customers. The range includes over a thousand new products, which range from traditional areas like Materials Handling through to exciting new ranges like Janitorial and Office equipment.
These days Slingsby products are trusted across all industries, from factories to supermarkets, hospitals to airlines, nurseries to schools - and with our regional key account managers throughout the UK we're closer than you think.
We keep on moving
Going forward, we're committed to providing our customers with more value for less cost, we've invested heavily in our commercial infrastructure in recent years and our personnel always take a pride in high service levels and low failure rates. We believe that consumer choice, product quality and flexible personal service are the key drivers of our business and we will continue to strive to provide our customers with genuine cost reductions, innovative new product development and faster delivery times.
Investment in new technology will also play a lead role in our commitment to the future. Continuous improvement of our systems and working practices is enabling us to foster closer relationships with suppliers and innovative customer relationship management strategies are helping us to create a true customer centric ethos.
