Author: Andrew Shaw, Product Manager – HAYLEY DEXIS Fluid Power
After 15 years of advising, stocking, distributing, and installing Festo products, HAYLEY DEXIS is proud to announce they have officially been appointed as the only UK Festo National Technical Distributor. Most people in the MRO industry know
German-based Festo as a world leader in pneumatics and applied automation. They have a long-established reputation for quality and innovation, and it sets them apart from their competitors. That’s why we’re proud to become the only UK Festo National Technical Distributor; their ethos of supporting industry through innovation aligns with our own stock, service, and people values. Our strengthened partnership will mean delivering innovations set to move the lever from reactive to preventive more than ever before.
A Team of Festo-Trained Experts
Becoming a Festo National Technical Distributor brings local stock and fluid power technical expertise together. Festo is already performing well at HAYLEY DEXIS, as reflected in the ever-growing number of regional, Festo-trained technical teams supporting the branch network and over £2 million worth of Festo products stocked across the UK branch network. An additional 15 Festo champions are being trained, ensuring HAYLEY DEXIS provides support unmatched by any other national distributor.
A True Value-Added Partnership
The new distributor status is a testament to the core strategy of HAYLEY DEXIS in providing true value-added services. This strategy focuses on several key challenges: energy savings, improving mechanical reliability, reducing spend and the administrative burden of purchasing departments, ensuring the safety of personnel, as well as helping to address the industry-wide skill shortage. The most impactful Festo product we
introduce to sites is often their valve terminals. These are vital for machine operation, and Festo leads the way with multi-protocol capability, allowing customers to easily swap communication protocols (such as PROFINET, EtherCAT, or PROFIBUS) by changing a single part rather than the entire Valve Terminal.
Festo’s world-class standing is built on quality, from being the first company to commercialise the concept of compact valve terminals to their legendary product testing, where components are run to destruction to ensure longevity and reliability. For instance, they have a particular valve in their factory that has switched position over 7 billion times since the early 90s. This commitment to quality is what we are proud to represent.
Predictive Maintenance & Electrical Automation
Festo’s investment in innovation, such as in their own industrial AI platform, AX, and the product category of Electric Automation (EA), are developing areas of our partnership. The AX platform uses positional feedback from key components, such as cylinders, to precisely detect when a component is about to fail. This not only saves money by avoiding the premature replacement of working parts but also ensures maximum machine efficiency and allows sites to plan maintenance activities with greater precision. Looking ahead, both Festo and HAYLEY DEXIS also recognise that EA, encompassing servo and stepper motors, control, and positional feedback, is the future. Compressed air is expensive, classified as the “fourth utility,” and its cost cuts directly into customer profitability.
Our long-term goal within HAYLEY DEXIS Fluid Power is to integrate electrical automation into our portfolio, supporting customers in selecting the right mix of pneumatic and electric technologies. Rather than assuming one is always more efficient, we help determine the most energy-efficient solution based on application requirements. This will require ongoing cross-functional collaboration and system integrators to ensure a fully connected solution.
"Becoming a Festo National Technical Distributor brings local stock and fluid power expertise together." – Andrew Shaw, Product Manager – HAYLEY DEXIS | Fluid Power
Addressing The Skills Shortage
Beyond innovation, HAYLEY DEXIS has a duty to support the industry as a leader in MRO. It’s no secret that the industry still struggles to recruit skilled engineers, and the skills gap is only going to get worse as experienced engineers retire. The partnership between Festo and HAYLEY DEXIS provides a crucial resource beyond products alone. Our Festo-trained team members and the expanding team of Fluid Power Champions are part of a long term commitment to upskilling the MRO workforce. This technical expertise is continually refreshed to ensure our people can not only supply the latest pneumatic and electrical automation technology but also train our customers’ teams in its application and maintenance.
It’s on the topic of training that further differentiates HAYLEY DEXIS from other distributors. During 2025, we directly trained over 300 external candidates in both basic and advanced hydraulics and pneumatics, delivering courses at our Halesowen training centre, one of our regional Training Hubs, or at the customer’s facility. We are proud to be one of the largest providers of BFPA accredited training courses, in the UK.
The Festo National Technical Distributor partnership shows that HAYLEY DEXIS has the local access, extensive stockholding, and technical capability to deliver comprehensive fluid power support to the MRO industry. We see this as two market leaders coming together to bolster the value HAYLEY DEXIS can deliver to its customers.
