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D Mullaney buys Aquila Truck Centre
Page 46
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II West Midlands ERF dealership Aquila Truck Centre has been acquired by managing director, Gary Mullaney, from Asset Investment Group for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition includes the company's headquarters, on a 7.5acre site at Aldridge near Walsall, plus outlets at Oswestry in Shropshire, and Redditch in Worcestershire.
With a f2 o m annual turnover, Aquila employs 117 people and Mullaney plans to add at least two new locations to the Aquila empire. It will become an MAN dealership as well in October.
At just 32, Mullaney is one of the youngest dealer principals in the truck business and only joined the firm two years ago.
"It took me 12 months to pull the deal off, and I think it's the right time to do it," he says. "I'm at the right age, and I've got lots of enthusiasm."
He's convinced that emphasising service is the key to future success. "We can do virtually everything at Aldridge," he enthuses. "As well as maintaining and repairing trucks, we've got MoT facilities and a fullyequipped bodyshop.
-We've recently made a considerable investment in new workshop equipment, and we've just acquired eight fully-equipped mobile service vans. One of them is dedicated to supporting a local waste contractor.
"We've also taken on three new courtesy cars for the use of drivers who drop trucks off to be serviced.
"We only close the workshop on Saturday and Sunday nights, and I reckon we sell around 75, 000 hours of workshop time a year," he continues. "Fortunately, we don't suffer from a shortage of technicians.
"In fact we've got a very stable workforce, which is a good reason for acquiring the business. On average, our employees have been with us for nine years."
He plans to develop the used side of activities too.
"We already sell around 600 second-hand light vehicles annually everything from car-derived vans to 7.5-tonners plus 150 used heavy trucks," he says. "We need to improve our performance at the heavier end of the market."
He's optimistic about the future of road haulage. "Everybody talks the job down, but a lot of people are employed in the road transport industry, and make a living out of it," he says. "People will always need trucks."