Haulage and warehousing company B Taylor & Sons, based in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, says it is on course to post a 10% increase in turnover for the last financial year. Good news at the best of times, but in the middle of one of the most severe recessions in living memory, it is quite a considerable achievement.
Alan Taylor, managing director, tells Commercial Motor
that the company, which has 62 trucks and 120 trailers on its domestic and international fleets spread over six depots, has reversed the percieved trend of hauliers and operators struggling financially in 2009.
However, he ventures, the path to growth has not been an easy one. "It is difficult at the moment; we are under pressure for service, being cost effective, and running a well-maintained and modern fleet, including training drivers to a good standard.
"We have to work harder for less, but that is a decision you make when you are running your business to retain your customers and remain competitive to keep the work coming in."
While the company has yet to publish its accounts for the year ending March 2009 in the year ending 31 March 2008, it increased its revenue from £2.09m to £2.43m, while pre-tax profits rose from £308,546 to £431,438.
The stated growth in turnover for the financial year 2008/2009 is down to several reasons,
reveals Peter Bates, general manager, adding: "It's a mixture of new contracts that have been secured, plus extensive pallet operations that is growing all the time and expanding the European work."
B Taylor & Sons is a member of the pallet network Fortec, and also handles hazardous goods through the 40-member Hazchem Network.
Taylor agrees: "We are very diverse. We have invested into the Moffat fleet [15 trucks and trailers with rear-mounted forklifts], roof truss trailers, recycling, high-cube trailers. We are not frightened to diversify."
"We get approached by people to do all sorts of things," adds Bates. "We have been approached to do temperature control. If the contract was big enough, we'd do it."
As other operators in the sector focus on cost efficiencies and slashing overheads, Taylor says that the company is yet to make any redundancies. He adds: "Every day we have drivers knocking on the door for jobs. They apply from further afield, it doesn't matter where a driver lives, it depends on what sort of work they want, if they are away all week, it doesn't matter."
One key area that B Taylor & Sons works hard on doing is travelling with loads and reducing empty running. "We have a small team of people who make sure these lorries are backloaded. They negotiate hard, we are always running with product on. This is reflected in the cost savings, which keeps us competitive," he says.
The economic downturn at the end of last year coincided with B Taylor & Sons putting the final touches to a new 13,470m2, £3m headquarters and freight centre in Huthwaite, Sutton-in-Ashfield, opened by the then transport secretary and local MP Geoff Hoon on 3 April.
The centre extends the company's depot count to six - five in the UK and one in the Netherlands. Features on the new site include a state-of-the-art fuel dispensing and monitoring system, plus a drive-through truck wash that uses recycled water. An acoustic sound barrier has also been installed in order to minimise any noise nuisance to local residents.
Taylor says the new site has modernised the business, and he was pleased to have finished it - a project the firm oversaw itself using the company's own O-licence as well as bringing in tippers and cement mixers, during a turbulent economic time.
"It has made the job easier for the employees. We are slowly transferring the operation here. It would have been too easy to put this expansion on the back burner.
"However, we knew our facilities were stretched and it was vital to maintaining our competitive edge and to our future success," he says. "The original site will become a maintenance site. With £500,000 investment, it will have trailer bays, a tyre service bay and a paint shop."
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