Soltex Highlights Efficiency Dividends with New Isuzu Tradepack

Western Australia is considered the nation's sunniest state, with 138 perfect clear days annually and inland areas averaging more than 10 hours of sunshine every day.

It’s small wonder then that Perth-based Soltex, a specialist manufacturer and installer of high-end retractable shade solutions has carved out a niche providing quality product designed to perform over time in an unforgiving environment.

“Perth’s got a pretty extreme environment with the combination of high heat and high winds, particularly during summer and our product is designed to make sure that people can enjoy the outdoors in those conditions and year-round,” said Soltex General Manager, Matt Harris.

“We offer a premium product, and we support it with a five-year warranty as a demonstration of our confidence that it’s going to go the distance, and it has to, with the varied weather we have all around the state,” he said.

Established in 2017, Soltex offers a wide range of outdoor shading and weather protection systems including louvre roof systems, retractable roofs, awnings and outdoor blinds and servicing customers across metropolitan Perth and the entire span of Western Australia.

The company has installed its product at some of WA’s iconic public and private venues including Sandalford Estate, Samphire at Rottnest Island, Mandurah Performing Arts Centre, and the Lobster Shack in Cervantes.

With each satisfied customer word has spread, and in line with the growth of the business, the company recently invested in a new Isuzu NPR 45-175 Tradepack with an eye to improved productivity and customer service.

A smarter way

“We’ve got an existing fleet of utes that the fabrication and installation team utilise and a lot of our product is pretty long, so we found that for a lot of jobs, multiple trips were required,” said Matt.

“A standard aluminium extrusion – a core element of our product line-up – is 6.5 metres and we’re transporting these to and from our factory, to second stage processing such as powder coating and to customer sites for installation.

“One of the key reasons for moving to a truck was to be able to transport these lengths more easily on top of the truck tray with the ladder racks and we can also load the shorter lengths and other equipment in the tray itself,” he continued.

“This is a lot better fit than what previously would have been two or three loads and potentially with trailers as well.

“Plus it’s the car driver licence model, so any of the team can jump in and drive it, giving us flexibility with our staffing.”

On the job conveniences

The latest model Tradepack includes a host of convenient and job focussed efficiency features such as the heavy-duty tray body with aluminium deck rated to 5 tonnes, two heavy-duty ladder racks plus powder coated window protector, external ratchet rails rated to 600 kg and removable drops sides and tailgate with cargo seal for easy tiedown access and load restraint.

There’s also the standard genuine Isuzu 3.5 tonne towbar and Isuzu bullbar, underbody mounted storage box and water tank and soap dispenser for the post-job clean-up.

Travelling far and wide

“We had some recent work down in Margaret River, a three-hour drive south of Perth for a dual-bay louvre roof system,” said Matt.

“Previously that would have involved multiple vehicles and extra staffing.

“With our utes and the tool boxes for the equipment and then the load of the materials, we were right up near the limit for the vehicles.

“With the Tradepack, we’d struggle to hit the truck’s weight capacity and we don’t have to worry about the Tetris game of getting a whole lot of stuff onto a smaller vehicle.

“Plus we’ve also got the added benefit of safety of not driving around in heavily laden utes,” he said.

“It also has a pretty good turning circle compared to the utes. We are often going to a lot of residential properties that have got tight street and laneways and especially some of the older suburbs with trees and other obstacles.

“The manoeuvrability of the truck is definitely an advantage,” Matt said.

Dealer service & support

Soltex is known for detailed consultation and the extensive advice provided to customers, so in purchasing the truck from Perth Isuzu truck dealer Major Motors, there was an affinity for the process.

“We bought the new truck from Major Motors, who we’ve got an existing relationship with based on work that we’ve previously done fitting some custom awning for some mining trucks,” Matt explained.

“It was a smooth process which always helps and we also took on a service agreement as part of the deal – it was really about the known maintenance costs and it’s always nice knowing what’s going out the door each month.

“It fits with how we think about our business – there was a clear reason to buy the truck, it’s fit for purpose, the process was easy and our experience with it so far has been great,” he concluded.

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