OPERATOR PROFILE EDDIE STOBART
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• The word "Cumbria" is disappearing from the large trailer fleet of Eddie Stobart, an indication that the Carlisle-based company now regards itself as a nationwide haulage/distribution company. It is also one of the fastest-expanding privately owned haulage companies in the UK, with fleet size and turnover growing by more than 800% since 1986.
This rate of expansion could well have caused problems, but managing director Edward Stobart has plans for further growth during the next few years.
His father, Eddie Stobart, started buying and selling fertiliser 40 years ago, and built up a 12-vehicle fleet, but during the quieter summer periods his trucks were used on other work, and this led to Eddie Stobart Ltd being set up as a transport and warehousing business. Eddie Stobart remains chairman of the group, with his sons Edward and William in dayto-day control.
"Carlisle represents only 30% of our turnover," says Edward Stobart. "Our network of depots stretches from Scotland south to Swindon, with an increasing proportion of our business coming from the Midlands."
Much of the Stobart business is with a small group of bluechip customers including CMB Packaging, United Closures & Plastics, Impetus Packaging, Coca-Cola Schweppes, Spillers Foods and Homepride Foods.
Stobart works mostly on long-term contracts, which can include a total distribution service starting at the production line, with Stobart staff based at customers' premises.
Edward Stobart says: "I believe one of our strengths is our ability to offer a full distribution and packing deal, and we have to be totally flexible to meet the needs of our customers. We don't go out looking for business. Our growth has been through reputation and word-of-mouth."
Stobart had only 9,290m2 of warehousing in 1986 but today there is ten times as much, between Carlisle, Lichfield, Corby, Glasgow and Leyland. While the Midlands is Stobart's main growth area, the company believes in going where the business is. A Yorkshire depot should be opening within six months.
Expansion on to the Continent is a defi nite possibility, but Edward Stobart is approaching the prospect with care. "When we go into Europe it will be for business, not for the glory," he says. "We will probably look to buy an established company, rather than set up our own operation from scratch."
Although haulage and distribution are the main elements of the business, the group includes two other companies — ESL and Drawbar Engineering. ESL is a contract-hire and vehicle franchise business, and the Skelmersdale-based Drawbar company was set up last year to build drawbar trailers for the parent fleet and for other customers.
"We have been using close-coupled drawbars for four years now," says Stobart. "They are ideal for the low-weight/ high-bulk loads we carry. But we had difficulty in getting manufacturers to do what we wanted, so we decided to set up our own company, with Derek Parkinson as engineering manager and Dave Williams as sales manager."
Stobart invested £250,000 in equipment for Drawbar which currently produces four trailers a week.
The main Stobart trailer fleet consists of Boalloy curtainsiders — there are more than 300 trailers in use.
There is a greater variety of trucks, with Seddon Atkinsons, Volvos and Iveco Fords and some Scanias dominating the 220-vehicle fleet. Stobart is taking delivery of 25 Seddon Atkinson Strato 325s, 20 Volvo FL10s and 20 Nem Ford Cargos. But Stobart says the company aims to standardise on just two makes.
Stobart has built an enviable reputation as a high-quality operator, and this is evident in everything from the office and warehouse premises, to the turn-out of vehicles and drivers. Every vehicle is washed twice-weekly, and drivers are shortly to receive an addition to their green uniforms — a shirt and tie.
"We asked the drivers what they wanted," says Stobart, "and it was clear that they regarded a shirt and tie as a mark of prestige." The company employs more than 400 people, and Stobart proudly says there have been no union problems over the past five years.
"We pay above the union rates, and we pay by the hour, so our drivers are not tempted to drive dangerously to achieve targets. We also provide our own staff training, and encourage our drivers to go for management training."
The in-house training courses are accredited by RTITB, and Stobart believes that these pay dividends. "Our operations managers are former traffic managers who are former traffic planners who are former drivers," he says. "This en sures that those making the decisions fully understand not only the problems that can be encountered but also the capabilities of the vehicles."
Edward Stobart is a shrewd businessman, who recognises the value of training and management succession. "This is very much a family-owned business, with my father, my brother and myself as shareholders," he says.
"We have grown so dramatically in the past few years because we have always adopted a business approach, and our profits have gone back into the company. I am firstly a businessman, and although I am interested in vehicles, I am not a wagon fanatic."
The business approach is further emphasised by Barrie Thomas, who is company secretary and financial controller of the three companies in the group. "We operate our service from the production line to the end user," he says, "and our customers can concentrate on the production of their products. We want to be seen as an integral part of the customer's business, taking our share of the responsibility for satisfying our customer's customer needs."
But the company is not content to stand still. Its targeted growth, agreed recently with its bankers, indicates a required level of around 220-250 vehicles operating nationwide while the trailer base would increase to about 400.
The head office is at Carlisle "at present", and Stobart acknowledges that as the business grows, there might be a need to relocate closer to the main customers. The impressive offices house the directors, Edward and his younger brother William, who is operations director, together with company secretary Barrie Thomas and marketing manager Colin Rutherford.
The traffic and customer liaison staff work in an open-plan office, and use a £250,000 computer system customdesigned by the company's management.
"We are computerised from the traffic desk to the stores to the accounts office in an integrated system capable of providing an information system to satisfy each of our managers' needs," says Stobart.
The food and beverage market is important to Stobart, with long-term distribution and warehousing contracts ranging from beer cans to tinned pet food.
"That's just the way it has happened," says Stobart. "We take each day as it comes, and if we see an opportunity we go for it. We certainly plan to continue growing, and would like to be the largest privately owned haulage/distribution company in Europe."
The projected group turnover of 225m this year means Eddie Stobart Ltd has moved firmly into the big league.
by Gavin Booth