Established in 1975 ESE Direct is an award winning and ethical business. We pride ourselves on our friendly customer-centric approach and our technical expertise.
For over 40 years our valued customers, have been at the heart of everything we do. Continued loyalty has been fundamental in enabling ESE to become one of the leading independent UK manufacturers and suppliers of industrial storage, workshop equipment, health & safety products, materials handling, site & facilities equipment, changing room benches, furniture, lockers, and industrial mail order products.
Customer satisfaction is our priority. With over 1000 Feefo customer reviews, we consistently achieve an average of 4 stars and above.
No-one is perfect, but we believe it is how you overcome problems that makes the difference and we are proud to have customers who have bought from us for over 20 years.
Many of our products are UK made and in stock, enabling us to deliver the right products, at the right time.
We also offer you discounted prices along with a price promise, so if you find the same carriage paid product cheaper elsewhere, before we deliver the goods, we will endeavour to beat the price.
If you are a regular purchaser and would like a dedicated Account Manager then please get in touch with Mark, our Sales Manager, and he will be more than happy to arrange this for you.
We also have a specialist projects division with over 40 years' experience of design, supply and installation of shelving, racking, mezzanine floors, office partitioning, industrial steel partitions, changing room furniture and more.
Plus, our range of changing room products, designed and manufactured in four unique ranges. Three ranges are protected with Active Coat antibacterial powder coating for extra peace of mind. Our Aqua Stainless Steel benches provide a very high resistance to humidity, water, chemicals and harsh environments.
We all look forward to being of service to you very soon.
Mark Wilson
Sales Manager
Stuart Ambrose
Technical Sales Consultant
Luke Palmer
Projects Administrator
Michelle Eagling
Sales Co-ordinator
Samantha Wooldridge
Account Manager
Michelle Melton
Customer Service Supervisor
Ryan Murray
Customer Service
Co-ordinator
Rebecca Young
Customer Service
Co-ordinator
Rod Bushnell
Accounts Administrator
Mark Perkins
Procurement Manager
Danielle Crosswell
Procurement Executive
Martin Gilmour
Marketing Manager
Debs Whomes
Social, SEO, Graphics
Samantha Barton
Marketing & Graphic Designer
Chris (Frankie) Salt
Web Developer
Jackie Wells
Managing Director
ESE Direct Ltd was established by Brian Francis in 1975 as Eastern Storage Equipment Ltd 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 almost 30 dedicated and experienced staff working within our three divisions:
As a long established, customer-centric 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 and commercial products to thousands of businesses and organisations across the UK.
2016 - Jackie Wells joins us as Managing Director and will be overseeing the replacement of much of our business software with a new system built specifically to make our customer service as efficient as possible at the same time as integrating websites, catalogues and direct sales into one system.
2015 - We took on more office space and in February were purchased by HC Slingsby PLC. The acquisition of the company by a larger PLC has enabled us to harness the greater buying power that comes with being part of a group and pass these savings on to our customers.
2014 - Fifth consecutive record year we recruited another 7 people (12 to 30+ team members in 5 years) and took on more office and warehouse space for our continuous expansion plans. We added extra phone lines and upgraded our phone call management systems to ensure we can answer your calls as efficiently as possible. We also launched two new websites and made dozens of other improvements to ensure we can look after you, our valued customers, to the best of our ability.
2013 - Fourth consecutive record year, thanks to your continued faith in us our customer base has also grown six-fold, we:
Added 1,600 new products and worked closely with suppliers to reduce or hold over 4,200 prices.
Changed to ESE Direct (previously Eastern Storage Equipment) because over 80% of our business is transacted through this trading style.
Now have an experienced senior management team in place.
Refurbished and extended our offices to facilitate further growth.
Took on extra warehousing to increase stock, reduce lead times and prices as well.
We also doubled our storage and mezzanine floor project handling capacity, and launched Biocote anti-bacterial paint finish as standard on our changing room benches.
2012 - Another record year, we made significant advances in customer services and order processing procedures to ensure we can look after you whilst we continue to grow. We recruited a Financial Director to help plan for the future, won one local and two national awards and were finalists in the Orange National Business Awards; probably the biggest business award in the UK. Another 2,000 new products were added online, some of which started selling within 24 hours of going live.
2011 - Another record year, we analysed and improved our business processes, employed five extra sales and customer service staff to ensure you, our customers, remain our top priority. Our IT systems were upgraded to automate as much as possible and enable ESE to handle the much larger volumes of orders and enquiries. 1,100 new online, mail order products were launched, along with a new range of Stainless Steel Cloakroom Seating with compact laminate or all stainless seats for the swimming pool and food processing and cleanroom markets.
2010 - A record year, we launched our first 352 page mail order catalogue along with brand new in-house designed and created E-commerce website and E-catalogue. We recruited four new team members to improve administration and maintain customer service and totally refurbished our facilities to accommodate them and the new team members planned for 2011.
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.
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.
2007 - In 2007, 2008 and 2009 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.
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.benchura.co.uk As a result online business more than doubled in that year.
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.
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.
1997 - First fairly basic Brochure Website was launched (when most competitors did not even have a website).
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.
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.
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 and trolleys, signs, noticeboards, first aid kits, litter and wheelie bins, ladders, lockers and workbenches.
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 and services we could provide our clients (since refurbished and extended numerous times).
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.
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.
In the last few years alone we have been fortunate to have supplied tens of thousands of customers of all sizes in hundreds of different industries, from 40+ of the FTSE100 top companies to small independent businesses, organisations and charities. We pride ourselves on providing the same high levels of service to every customer regardless of their size or industry and just some of our Prestigious customers include:
Last year alone we managed to supply over 700 public sector organisations including:
Schools, Colleges and Academies - Council Departments - Universities - Hospitals - Government Departments - Emergency Services - Museums - Armed Forces - Prisons
Baxi Heating - Baxter Healthcare - Bespak - Britvic - Brady Corporation - Buck & Hickman - Bunzl - Cromwell - Calor Gas - Coca Cola - Dolby Laboratories - Domino's Pizza - Dorma UK - Dow Corning - Eriks - 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
Babcock - Balfour Beatty - Bam Nuttall -Celotex - Corillion - Costain - Covion - Hanson - Kier - Lafarge - Mansell - May Gurney - Mitie - Serco - Vitra
Balmoral Estates - DEFRA - English Heritage - Foreign & Commonwealth Office - HM Customs & Excise - HMRC - IOD - MOD - Royal Commission- Royal Mail -The Met Office - The Royal Mint - The British Museum
Arsenal FC - Cardiff City FC - Celtic Manor Resort - Chelsea FC - Derby County FC - Formula One Management - Norwich City FC - Aston Villa FC - Fulham FC - Royal St Davids Golf Club - Stenhousemuir FC
Caterham Air Asia F1 - Caterpillar - Lotus Cars -Mercedes Benz - McLaren F1 - Michelin Tyres - Nissan - Rolls Royce - Tesla Motors - Volvo Construction - Williams F1
City Airport London - Gatwick Airport - Great Western Railways - Manchester Airport - Network Rail - Northern Rail - P&O Ferries - Southern Railways - Stena Sealink Ferries
Atlantic Airlines - BAE Systems - Easyjet - Lockheed Martin - Lufthansa - Monarch - Thomson Airways
Aldi - Burberry - House of Fraser - John Lewis - LK Bennett - Lush - Sainsburys - Selfridges - TM Lewin
British Red Cross - Help for Heroes - Mencap - NSPCC - Oxfam - RSPB - Samaritans - Scope - St John Ambulance
Bank of Scotland- Camelot Lotteries - Capital One PLC - Deutsche Bank - Santander - Virgin Money
BBC - Channel 4 - Channel 5 - National Gallery - QVC - Royal Opera House
BeWilderwood - Centre Parcs - Drayton Manor Theme Park - London Dungeons
Holiday Inns - Intercontinental Hotels - Leisure Inns - Victoria Inns
Anglian Water - EDF - EON - Northumbrian Water - Severn Trent Water - Siemens - South West Water
AND THOUSANDS MORE...
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.
ESE is committed to providing excellent workplace standards for everyone.
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.
At ESE we encourage our team to:
ESE aims to sustain and improve our natural environment for the benefit of all and we are committed to:
ESE is an active member of the local community.
Email: | [email protected] |
Phone: | 01603 629956 |
Fax: | 01603 630113 |
Head Office Address: | Wensum Works 150 Northumberland Street Norwich Norfolk NR2 4EE |
Company Registration: | 01279230 |
VAT Registration No: | GB 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 head 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 and quotations.