Chips with everything
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CM went to Wiltshire to meet the original potato haulier and discovered that keeping a business in the family can go a long way – 146 years, in fact
Words: George Barrow/Images: Karl Hopkinson/Image Group “Salt and vinegar?” It’s not the most
conventional of opening interview questions, but sharing a portion of chips before breakfast seems necessary when at the home of D Mortimer & Sons.
Home to a leet of trailers bearing the slogan “Eat More Chips”, this busy yard in Melksham, Wiltshire, has a history of potatoes dating back as far as 1865.
With a dairy farm and a fresh fruit and vegetable business operating alongside the haulage company, it’s understandable that outsiders might think Mortimer has strayed from its father and sons roots. However, it is still a family-run business, with three generations involved in the day-to-day running of the company.
Over time the family name has changed, but Mortimer blood is still running the business with great-, great-, greatgrandson Toby Ovens and father Jonathan now leading the company’s transport business.
Despite a century and a half of history behind them, Mortimer’s haulage business is still relatively young. It was only established in 1983, when the company started transporting potatoes to Holland and backloading with chips. Soon the words “Eat More Spuds” began to appear on its trailers and by 1989 that was replaced with “Eat More Chips” to relect the 40-plus loads Mortimer was transporting each week.
Busy operation
Nowadays, its small ofice is still a hive of activity, with drivers from the haulage and fruit and veg sides of the business clocking-in and out, sharing a joke as they go, while former driver-turned-transport-planner Michael Rawlings chases a backload from Spain as his dog Benji enthusiastically greets the visitors. Ovens has his work cut
LEFT-HAND DRIVE TRUCKS
So great is the volume of work carried out on the Continent, and the length of time its drivers and trucks are away, that Mortimer now specifies its vehicles only in left-hand drive.
“Even over here I’d much rather drive a left-hand drive truck,” says Toby Ovens, who passed his HGV test six years ago, shortly after his 18th birthday. “All of our drivers, except one [71-year-old Mickey White], agree it’s better, but Mickey’s more used to the right-hand drive trucks. We also make sure the trucks are fitted with big diesel tanks so they can do plenty of miles between stops. It can be very difficult to organise a fleet spread out all over Europe, so anything that makes the planning easier helps.” out, not only because he’s helping to wash half a dozen trucks and trailers, but also in organising an everexpanding leet that no longer deals solely in chips. Despite this, the company still runs and feels like a small family unit – something that is even relected in the way the staff refer to their leet.
Having run just 54 trailers since the business started, Mortimer staff refer to each of the 36 units in operation based on the order they joined, and talk about the ‘older ones’ with a certain fondness. Toby Ovens is, however, less misty-eyed about the trucks, despite still running a Scania 143 that was bought new in 1989.
Since June 2010, 15 new vehicles have been added to the company’s leet, bringing the total number of trucks to 28. The latest batch includes ive MAN TGX 6x2s that joined 10 DAFs which, according to Ovens, “came along at the right time and for the right price”.
For Ovens, the key is reliability, especially as Mortimer’s trucks spend long periods in Europe. “Our drivers have to be prepared to spend up to three weeks abroad, so it’s really important that we’ve got good trucks. We used to run MAN TGA 460s and 480s a few years ago, but we had problems with the gearboxes and the EGR. We’ve bought other vehicles since, but it hasn’t put us off bringing in the TGXs because a contractor we know has been running one for three years without any problems. All of our new vehicles are on contract hire and fully maintained because if something does go wrong we can’t afford to pick up the costs.” “Running abroad is an expensive business, especially if you get a breakdown,” adds Rawlings, who has been with the company for more than 20 years, and is now negotiating the best price for his Spanish backload via email, while agonising over a lorry suffering from an axle failure en route to a pick-up. “It’ll cost us £800 to £1,000 just for a blow-out, so that’s the week’s proit on that truck gone. We’ve had breakdowns before that have totally wiped out the proits, and then there’s also the problem of sorting out the load.” However, the costs of running abroad appear to be working in Mortimer’s favour, not on its own European operations, but because of the additional costs incurred by competitors looking for business in the UK. “I don’t think there’s the same number of foreign companies operating over here as there used to be, which helps with our export business. On the whole, our trucks don’t work to and from the UK. Instead, we ship out with a load, usually to Holland, and then pick up jobs right the way across Europe,” Ovens says.
Not just chips
Although its work no longer centres around distributing chips, there is still a tenuous connection to part of Mortimer’s regular work. There’s also a link to a reality TV series, as the irm ships fresh ish from the Netherlands that has come direct from Dutch Harbour in Alaska, and the boats of The Deadliest Catch – although Mortimer has yet to appear on the programme and the cargo is unlikely to appear battered alongside any of its chips.
“We run to northern Holland about four to ive times a week, where we get the ish from Dutch Harbour. From there, our trucks go across Spain and to Portugal, before eventually loading up and coming back to the UK.” With so many linking loads being carried-out across the Continent, it takes an experienced head to calculate the journeys, driving hours and costs of keeping the vehicles moving. Luckily for Rawlings, a telematics system is due to be rolled-out across the leet.
“We’re installing Fleetmatics on all the lorries to keep track of the vehicles and improve our planning. It’s deinitely going to make our lives easier and, with trucks all over Europe, you need it,” Ovens says.
That job is only going to get harder, as the company’s latest venture has seen it take delivery of its irst lowloader. Paired with a 510hp DAF XF105, Ovens hopes the £140,000, 80-tonne unit will open up more business away from its traditional line in frozen foods. There are also ive new vehicles to order, and while the new MANs are faring well, Ovens is keen to explore other marques. “We’re not committed to any one make of truck. As long as they come in at the right price and do a good job while we have them, I’ll be happy. We’ve got a Mercedes demonstrator on loan to us that has been getting some use. It’s gone down well with the drivers, so who knows, maybe they’ll be our next lot of trucks, if they can beat the price of our MANs.” D Mortimer & Sons has come a long way since it started in the potato business, and even further still since forming the transport irm to deliver its own produce and becoming the largest single importer of chips in the late 1990s. Ovens is enthusiastic about the future of the “Eat More Chips” brand and eager to push the company forward by diversifying. For the time being, though, there are more pressing matters to attend to. The cows need milking and there’s still a breakdown to resolve.
Fortunately, Rawlings has driven a hard bargain and closed the deal on his backload, and Benji the dog is fulilling the company slogan by busying himself with the leftover chips. ■