Lancashire-based Alison Handling has reached the finals of this year’s Venturefest North West Innovation Showcase competition.
The Innovation showcase targets small to medium-sized businesses who have launched a new product, service or digital innovation in four categories. Alison Handling has been recognised for the launch of its new A-Link Dolly which is a rack to shelf solution, cutting the need for cage trolleys, and inefficient storage systems in the Product Innovation category.
Having already beaten stiff competition to reach the finals, the team from Alison Handling will now pitch to an audience in excess of 1000 potential customers and investors at an event at Manchester Central on the 20th November 2019.
Glenn Broomfield, managing director at Alison Handling said: “This has been a rigorous process already and we are delighted to be recognised by Venturefest and to be given the opportunity to take centre stage to showcase our Dolly solution. The response to the Dolly from our customers has been overwhelming and we truly believe that by using the Dolly, businesses can cut staff handling times between the warehouse and the store by approx. 46%, meaning huge savings on labour, whilst increasing efficiency and profitability.”
The A-Link Dolly has been over a year in development and testing and represents a major R&D investment for Alison Handling. The system is a unique wheeled dolly, designed to accommodate all types of plastic storage boxes, tote boxes, stack-nest crates, with a feature on the trolley to create location points for castors for safe stacking of the dollies when in storage or returned to store.
Winners of each of the four categories will be chosen by an independent panel of experts and there will also be an audience winner, each of which will be announced on the day.
Innovation Showcase entrants have generated £5.2million of investment offers from having taken part in the competition. Many of these were not actual winners on the day but made such an impression with angel investors and venture capitalists that they went on to secure funding for their proposition.
