PRICE'S PATCH
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Local knowledge gives Town & Country the edge in the maze of lanes and villages that makes up its North Wales territory, but its national connection has also opened the door to a major distribution network.
• Wales is a scenic maze of hilly, winding roads. Pretty, if you've got the time. But coupled with its vulnerability to bad weather and tourist traffic, anything to do with maintaining distribution schedules becomes a major headache.
Town Sr Country Distribution has tackled the difficulties head on and has carved itself a major niche in the area by offering its customers "an efficient and cost-saving solution to their distribution problems".
With its head office in Alltami, near Mold, Clywd, with easy access to the M56, Town & Country break-bulks, stores and distributes a wide range of products throughout North and Mid-Wales, the North-West of England and Cumbria. "We specialise in providing a fast, economic, reliable and professional service," says commercial director Mervyn Price.
"We have expert local knowledge, and are ideally located to serve a notoriously difficult distribution area. We have a modem fleet of purpose-built vehicles which, together with our computerised stock control systems, ensures a rapid turnaround of products," says Price.
Customers include BP, Castro!, Shell and numerous food and confectionery producers such as CPC Foods, Nabisco, Sharwoods and Squirrel Confectionery.
Price says a growing number of ownaccount distributors are getting wise to Town & Country and are participating in its 'piggy back' operation.
"It could take a company two days to make deliveries into Wales — we offer a next-day service. We can collect, if necessary, or receive goods for delivery at our depot (a 5,700m2 warehouse) near Mold. The goods come in during the day, are broken down, order picked, put into runs overnight and are on their way first thing in the morning."
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
Town & Country drivers have local knowledge which gives them an advantage over drivers from other parts of the UK, says Price. They are familiar with the bottlenecks caused in the summer by tourist traffic, delays caused by roadworks, and how bad weather makes certain routes treacherous or impassable. Every driver has a pager so he or she can be contacted at any time by head office.
"We know we can distribute more competitively than anyone else and at the same time save own-account operators a lot of money. What is the point of several half-empty lorries struggling to get to the same destination? It's surely better for one company to co-ordinate the loads and achieve maximum efficiency for everyone," says Price.
"Wales is predominantly populated by sheep so there just isn't the volume of business to keep many companies operating profitably."
Price believes the company's major asset is its personnel. Town & Country is a small operation employing around 40 people — "being so small we are only as good as each other so we've all got to pull in the same direction," he says.
The staff are taught that customer service is paramount; that they have to be courteous and friendly as well as professional in their work. "We try to impress on our staff that they are ambassadors of the particular company they are delivering for at the time,'' says Price.
"But our size gives us the advantage of being able to offer a very personal service. We try to get involved with each customer's particular problems and do what we can to help. We want them to be confident that we'll be there to back them up and are keen to do so."
Such problems may be that certain customers don't want deliveries before 10am or after 2pm. Price says Town & Country is totally flexible and will fit in with any of these arrangements.
Town & Country may be a small operation, but it is part of the Williams Brothers group which, in turn, is owned by Transport Development Group. It therefore has access to a major distribution network and substantial financial backing. The Williams brothers set up their tipper haulage operation after the war, specialising in colliery work as mining was the main industry at that time. The company was taken over by TDG in the '60s but was still run by the same management until the brothers retired.
Williams is an autonomous company within TDG. It runs more than 120 vehicles — including dry powder tankers, tippers and chilled curtainsiders and has nearly 90,000m2 of warehousing. It offers general haulage and warehousing services
and operates from four depots in North Wales — Bangor, Wrexham, Buckley (near Mold) and Hereford.
The Town & Country operation was set up eight years ago following the arrival of David Williams (no relation) as managing director. He has recently taken on the additional role of managing director of another TDG company, Harris Road Services. Williams was previously with Storage and Haulage, a distribution company in the Midlands where he could see the potential in Wales for a specialist distribution service.
Williams had the confidence to make a considerable investment in the idea which included replacing the then nine-vehicle fleet with a more modern lineup. The company was initially called Town & Country Express to give it a separate identity from the general haulage division of Williams Brothers. Price, who has worked for Williams Brothers for 30 years, was appointed commercial director.
As Town & Country launched its operation, a couple of local distribution companies went out of business leaving the market open for the new company. "We were fortunate enough to take on a manager from one of the folding companies and he brought his contracts with him. As a consequence we made our first move into food distribution," says Price.
PARCEL DELIVERY
Initially, Town & Country also dabbled in parcel distribution, but gave it up after only a couple of years. "Parcel delivery is too specialist an operation and we didn't feel this was where our future lay. It required too much investment."
But as the presence of 'Express in the name implied a parcel operation, the company underwent a complete facelift three to four years ago and emerged as Town & Country Distribution with a new vehicle livery – red, green and predominantly white, which is in line with Williams Brothers colours.
The Town & Country business has developed gradually from a turnover of around 2300,000 in the beginning, to 5.1 million last year; it is on target for a 21.3 million turnover in 1989. Williams
turnover was 213 million in 1988.
"We were not very profitable to start with but now we are beginning to achieve some good results. Our turnover increased by 32% between 1988 and 1989 and our mileage increased by 53%. We also see great potential for further expansion," says Price.
"We have successfully segregated our food and non-food deliveries (we avoid hazardous chemicals — we are aware of our responsibility to the food industry) which means we have the opportunity to expand and extend Our operations in both these areas."
The company's fleet has now grown to 23, mainly 17-tonne Mercedes curtainsidrs with tail-lifts. Price says these are deal distribution vehicles, particularly in :he Lake District. But the company does lave a small 7.5-tonne truck for real probem deliveries.
A recent purchase which dramatically mproved Town & Country's operation was a computer system which keeps re7ords of invoices, processes deliveries :giving details of weight and revenue) and works out the most efficient delivery/ 7.ollection schedule. All the company's Toutes are programmed into the computer which sorts them into a postal-coded de livery system to prevent drivers covering the same ground. "An extremely difficult and time-consuming job to do manually," says Price.
The Town & Country operation has been extended considerably since its launch. According to Price it now reaches east as far as the Pennines, south to Aberystwyth and north to the Scottish borders. But with its Williams Brothers connection, Town & Country can collect and deliver anywhere in the UK — one of its customers requires a service to. and from Lenham in Kent.
"As part of Williams Brothers it can also handle the long-haul collections on a return load basis, which makes us competitive in the trunking aspect as well as on a local basis," Price explains. He says there is nobody based in Wales to compete with Town & Country: "We are the biggest distribution operation in North Wales, and we intend to get bigger. There are plenty of companies offering the same service, but not in this location. "We also charge very competitive rates and are as cheap, if not cheaper than our competitors."
Price says the company has worked hard to build a reputation of a good friendly service — only possible because it is a small company.
But being owned by the giant TDG also has its own advantages. "It is our banker. It doesn't interfere in what we do, but because we have been successful it has backed us," says Price.
12 by Merril Boulton