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Pall-Ex chief executive Hilary Devey is well on her way to recovery after suffering a stroke earlier this year and is looking forward to expanding the pallet network in Europe. "I'm on the mend. I had a stroke in the early part of the year cause partly by the damn hard work last year. I was everywhere, constantly up and down the motorway and doing 20-hour days. I just wore myself out really. I was very poorly and spent the best part of three months in hospital."

While she says it was a  "humbling experience", she's gearing up for the challenges of 2009, which could include acquisitions should the right opportunity arise. "While I'm not yet 100% now, I'm certainly back in the business, with a hands-on role. I'm enthusiastic to forge ahead and get things moving."

However, she will be travelling less and relying on her senior management team to do more work. "Last year we appointed Adrian [Russell] as managing director - it was the right decision and he has performed incredibly well."

Having launched in Italy last year, with an investment of around three-quarters of a million pounds, Pall-Ex plans to open in Spain later this year and in Poland next spring.

"The Italian division is a three-year project and negotiations have been protracted but it all came good in the end," says Devey, who appeared on the Channel 4 TV show Secret Millionaire last year.

The firm is able to finance such an expansion during the recession because it has historically  carried little debt, which means it has avoided the worst impact of the credit crunch, Devey says. "Pall-Ex is not highly geared [indebted] at all. We bought our land at the right period, unlike some of our competitors who have huge debt.

"When we saw the recession coming, we acted very promptly. We cut back where necessary. We looked at every area of the business in depth, our suppliers and our capital expenditure. And we made savings in all areas and it proved to be the right thing to do."

This year has seen its volume drop by around 8%, which is short of the 25% fall that Devey claims she has seen elsewhere in the industry. Now Pall-Ex is looking to build a further hub with the East Midlands and is looking for take-over opportunities, she says.

Pall-Ex looks for service-led opportunities

For Hilary Devey, Pall-Ex chief executive, a pallet network has become more than a way of helping hauliers make money from small consignments. She believes Pall-Ex, which grew from nothing to a multi-million pound enterprise in 13 years, can provide a range of business services to its members, providing particular help during the recession.

The company already includes IT services as part of the membership deal, but Devey says her firm can also give good financial advice to hauliers struggling with the dual problem of falling volume and reduced access to bank credit.

"We have an excellent relationship with our members, we do train them," Devey says. "If they perceive that they are going to have cash-flow problems, then we insist they do budgets, management accounts and yearly forecasts. Late last year we had some members coming to us saying, 'in March [this year] I might be in trouble'. It's just a cash-flow problem. We acted quickly, and have gone into their business planning. We've had quite a good turn around with these firms and at the moment we've not had any casualties."

The recession is sharpening its focus on business within the road haulage industry, effectively sorting the wheat from the chaff.

"We've gone a long way in trying to educate them on the more commercial aspects of business," Devey says. "Hauliers generally fall into one of two categories. You've either got the very astute business people, who are in business to make money, or you've got hauliers who like playing with trucks and if they make money out of doing so it's a bonus: there aren't many of those left. Our business ranges from very large fleet operators to very small fleet operators. All of them have got a commercial head on them. They produce management accounts which, 10 years ago, were virtually nonexistent in this industry."