S ince its establishment in Swansea in 1907 Robbins & Sons
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has weathered the many economic storms which have swept through the town. The family business, which started as a furniture shop, has survived by adapting to the changing face of Swansea's industry. Philip and feffrey Robbins took over the business in 1971 on the death of their father Eli. By then the company was focused on furniture removals and hauling toys. But when the toy work abruptly ended the vulnerability of having a large part of your business tied up in a single contract hit home.
"Suddenly Go% of our turnover was written off," Philip Robbins recalls. "We learned then not to allow one single customer to take up too large a proportion of our turnover. It was hard work but what we have become is a company which does a little bit of everything rather than a lot of something. If you have a big customer and you lose it you have got a mammoth problem."
Robbins has seen Swansea change radically from its days as a centre for steel and coal. "My mother's house used to have 3,000 people a day walking past it to the steel works beyond. Today there are none," he says. Each change makes a change—it's a tide that ebbs and flows."
Alongside the removals business the company developed a general haulage fleet which handles steel and plastics and runs a 5, room'. storage site. "Any vehicle we have is almost adaptable to anything else," he says. "Even the removal vans could have a pallet of plastic stuck on the back." Robbins has also diversified its removals business by moving into Naval work. The overseas connection began when a top-secret American Naval facility was established at RAF Brawdy in West Wales. Robbins' long-standing reputation won it the job of shipping American equipment in and out of the country. Now Robbins regularly sends loads, both general haulage and removals, to France, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. On the removals side the company handles loads to Australia, the Far East and America via the Britannia network of independent furniture removers. All international work is subbed out, with Go% going to Continental hauliers.
The driver famine is a problem for Robbins: "We have a very good nucleus of staff but we can't pay them enough. Our men are worth more money. It's inevitable that we will get shortages of people coming into the industry if the money's not there."
Like all South Wales hauliers Robbins is dependent on the
Severn Bridge and he has harsh words for the toll system which costs him about ir,000 a month with no discounts for hauliers who pre-pay: "Because of a block put on by the gov ernment the Severn River crossing company cannot give dis
counts or accept credit card payments. We have to pay the TAG bill up front every month. Then there is the arrogance of the letter that comes to say we are fr6 in arrears and threatening virtually to pull up the drawbridge on us."
FACTFILE
Robbins 86 Sons
RASED Fforest-fach, Swansea.
FOUNDED 1907, Morriston, Swansea. At present the company employs 31 people, including Philip's son Andrew, 23, who works as a rep on the removals side of the business. "We are about the right size for us now but I would like to see some growth," he condudes. "We want to be selective and increase in specialist areas—not areas that can be latched onto by just anybody."