Scottish transport and storage company T P Niven is celebrating the diamond anniversary of its most important partnership – with leading heating radiator manufacturer Stelrad. It’s a partnership that started back in 1961 and has grown to be one of the most important in the company’s impressive history that goes back to 1926 when the founder of the company invested in his first truck as the General Strike was sweeping across the country. It’s a working relationship that has been integral to the firm’s growth and development particularly in recent years.
There have been many key changes to the way both T P Niven and Stelrad have operated in those sixty years, but the companies have worked together to overcome the challenges that in particular, manufacturing changes have brought to the relationship.
In 1999, T P Niven began providing transport services to the new production unit at Mexborough in Yorkshire, that saw the addition of a new warehouse complex – the beginnings of Stelrad’s new National Distribution centre, in conjunction with another family-owned transport company – Murray Hogg Ltd – and this partnership continues to work well to the present day.
The number of radiators delivered by T P Niven over the sixty years for Stelrad, is hard to estimate – but must run into many millions. It’s a huge number! The success of the operation is in no small part down to the dedication and hard work of all the drivers, office staff and mechanics that have worked for T P Niven over this time frame. The success of this partnership is being celebrated in 2021 with a new liveried T P Niven/Stelrad vehicle that will be seen up and down the country on the roads of the UK.
T P Niven managing director Jim Niven says the excellent partnership between his company and Stelrad has been down to mutual trust and excellent service coming from both companies over that time: “It’s not just been a strong business to business relationship that’s been formed over the past sixty years, but the establishment of some lifelong friendships that have been created along the way. I would like to thank the current Stelrad CEO Trevor Harvey and his team for their continued support. I’m looking forward to continuing commitment from both companies in the years ahead and to being a major radiator delivery partner for many years to come!”
“The relationship with T P Niven is a key one for the success of the Stelrad brand,” says Stelrad’s Chris Harvey. “Logistics is more important today than it’s ever been and as well as producing the highest quality radiators for the UK heating sector, it’s imperative that we can meet our delivery obligations to the merchant network across the UK, with our delivery promise of delivering our radiators within 72 hours of every order. The partnership with T P Niven has been key to us developing a sector leading logistics package and comes high on our customers list of priorities when working with us. We’re grateful to T P Niven for their contribution to our business over sixty years – theirs is an impressive record.”
