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Haulage firm partners up with Leeds Beckett University to net business and drive high profile engagement
In an 18-month partnership, Collett & Sons worked with Dr Andrew Platten and Dr Nick Cope to develop a bespoke software system transforming the way the company does business. The project, which was part-funded under the Government’s Knowledge Transfer Partnership Programme (KTP), has significantly increased Collett’s technical credibility and strengthened its market position with a corresponding uplift in profits.
The haulage firm specialises in transporting and moving difficult loads on an international level.
Speaking about the project, Eric Crosby, Projects Director at Collett & Sons commented: “The KTP project has raised the capability of our experienced haulage company, positioning us alongside multi-national rivals.
“The development of our integrated expert system formalises our engineering and technical competence, and represents a step change in company capability, while allowing us to increase our market share.”
He said that as a result of the partnership the company could see the impact of the project with new, higher value contracts and engagement with high profile clients in peer-to-peer engineering discussions.
Leeds Beckett drew on expertise in mechanical design and digital solutions and embedded a member of university staff, Dr Ruben Escribano, at the company’s depot in Goole, East Yorkshire to work on the project. This was a unique opportunity to partner with a local business to better understand the real life applications of its research areas.
Dr Escribano, said: “The project has offered a unique opportunity to develop the university’s capability in mechanical design and digital solutions. The funded partnership has now finished but there is a genuine desire to maintain the link between the university and the company for future collaboration. This will include continuing to improve and enhance the new system we have installed with Collett & Sons, in light of new technological capabilities but also new areas of partnership working.”
Lead academic on the project, Dr Platten, added: “This project has been a very positive experience from planning to completion. The ability of the commercial partner to contribute to the project both unique and challenging scenarios has been exceptional. In every sense this has been a team based delivery.”
To find out more about Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and how your organisation could work with Leeds Beckett University please contact the Leeds Beckett KTP office: ktp@leedsbeckett.ac.uk or 0113 812 5981.