Survival – George Lodge – the UK’s worst tidal surge in 60 years hits premises of George Lodge & Sons Ltd

George Lodge began distributing bearings in the 1920’s when it became an authorised distributor for the Ransome & Marles Bearing Company. This association still exists today as an authorised distributor for NSK Bearings who acquired the companies of Ransome & Marles and Hoffman & Pollard (RHP) in the 1990s.

On December 5th 2013, the George Lodge & Sons site, situated on the edge of Hull’s Albert Dock was the victim of a devastating tidal surge as a result of days of torrential rain and storm-force gales over the nearby North Sea. The extreme weather caused the River Humber’s banks to burst which then flooded Albert Dock causing huge surges of water to gush into the surrounding industrial area which included the George Lodge & Sons premises. In a matter of minutes, the building and many others surrounding it were deluged with between 3 and 5ft of flood water.

“In our 130 year history, it was the biggest single incident that we have faced” said Managing Director, Dave Fuller.

The immediate effects of the flood in December were the loss of £300,000 worth of stock, uninhabitable offices and no electricity. With no electricity, this effectively meant an almost total shutdown of our operation because we had no IT, telephones, lights or heating. Although our IT system was fully backed up to a ‘cloud’ and all data transferred within 24 hours, the only access the company had to the system for the first 3 days of the incident was via the free wifi offered by Costa Coffee on a nearby retail park. This was also a measure of the effectiveness of the BearingNet website as the first order won while working out of Costa Coffee was from an enquiry through BearingNet.

The flood hit English Street in Hull on the evening Thursday 5th December but by Monday 9th December George Lodge & Sons was fully operational, albeit from a make shift office on the 1st floor of the premises with electricity being generated by mobile generators and access to the internet was via dongles.

“This almost immediate turnaround was only possible because of the hard work and dedication of our staff and the rapid reaction of our service providers. Although we were, from the outside, operating normally, there was still an enormous amount of work to be done internally and for just over a year the staff had to cope with working in a ‘building site’ environment.”

Today, with fully renovated offices and a fully stocked warehouse George Lodge & Sons are in tip top form to offer their expertise and quality products from Timken, Koyo and Optibelt to the trade.