New name, new life
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ASPRAY 24 Is firmly in year one of a five-year plan to improve the turnover of the business. But there is more to it than a new name and a flash livery: a detailed business plan to diversify the business, improve its assets and cut costs is being deployed at the West Midlands firm.
MD Stuart Laight's father Patrick set up the firm, based in the town of Willenhall, sandwiched between Wolverhampton and Walsall, with his business partner George Aspray in 1982 with a fleet of 10 vehicles. Patrick bought what was then G Aspray in 1991 and changed the name to Aspray Transport.
Finally, after what Laight describes as "enduring the harshest recession [we have experienced]", the company changed its name to Aspray 24 (CM 6 May), as it looks to promote a strong business It aims to nearly double turnover to £40m by 2015. Laight is no stranger to hard work; he promised his father he would stay at school until he was at least 18 in exchange for a motorbike.
The deal was kept and in fact he ended up going to Loughborough University where he studied for a degree in transport management.
He was appointed Aspray MD in 2005. "I have always loved transport, and driving the business through a harsh economy was difficult, but I have not shunned 60-hour working weeks if it has been for the greater good of this family business," he explains The company specialises in hauling components, for customers such as fasteners supplier Hexstone and Avocet Hardware. Laight says: "Because of the nature of our business, we became extremely concerned at the rate volumes were declining, so we knew the recession was looming before most sectors.
"We decided to take action sooner rather than later and took the brunt of cost cutting straight away in 2008."
Staffing levels He tells CM the company has recruited no additional staff since 2008 (which stood at 547 in April of that year). However, this alone was not enough and 97 redundancies were made before August 2008 across the firm's 13 depots.
-While we were not necessarily losing customers, we were seeing their volumes fall by up to 40%," he says. What followed was a wage cut across the board, a change in shift patterns and a focus on efficiency.
During a three-month period of fuelefficient driver training and better truck utilisation, the business managed to cut its daily fuel costs by £1,000.
"After being forced to look at our operations, we are now in a win-win situation. We've reduced our miles on the road and customers are happy for their goods to be consolidated with other cargo if it means they receive a lower bill."
Indeed, after the firm returned to financial stability, it re-instated wages to what they were prior to the cut. Laight has also reassured employees that the company has a "great future".
Following the rebranding to Aspray 24, £2m has been invested in 50 new trucks, while 60 new employees (mainly drivers) will be recruited by the end of the year. The fleet now stands at 375 trucks and 15 vans. "We are in year one of our growth plan and feeling positive. Our turnover between January and April was up 25% on the same period in 2009, so we feel this can grow more by the introduction of new services.
Fresh image needed
"We decided we needed a fresh image to promote ourselves as a one-stopshop and not just a transporter.
"The name change hopefully better reflects that we offer a 24-hour logistics service, including pick and packing, and freight forwarding. The reality is we are handling 750 tonnes of freight daily and need to get it out there that we are more than simply a haulier."
As Laight mentions. on 1 June Aspray 24 went live with its new freight forwarding business: Aspray International (CM 27 May). The changes are all part of Laight's live-year plan to reach a £40m turnover. Revenue for the year ending 31 December is expected to be £27m. Approximately 40 new accounts have been won this year, ranging from £1,000 to £20,000 each.
However, Laight is keen to stress that Aspray 24 still prides itself on having "a big enough to cope, but small enough to care" motto. "I believe we are unique because we can act as a pallet network, a courier and a haulier. We have the infrastructure in place to do all these things ourself. meaning we don't have to rely on other operators," he says.
He claims this is fundamental in ensuring the company's ethos of quality and caring is maintained: We arc a business that prides itself on being approachable. No matter how big an account, a customer can always reach our staff rather than having to communicate with an answer machine."
Confident
While Laight cannot he expected to predict how the UK economy will pan out, he is adamant that Aspray 24 has the strength to survive. "I know we won't ever get to the stage where we are operating without making a profit. I am completely against any pre-pack administrations. I believe it's almost legalised criminality."
With good revenues coming into the business and with Laight not afraid to make difficult decisions, Aspray can build on its new name.
It would be a fair guess that, in the coming months, customers will favour not just those who survived the recession, but those that are committed to growing in the future. El