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DOUBLE ACT ON THE MOVE
Page 24
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John Rossall and Dave Faulkner left a national removals company to set up on their own, and now work for their old employer's successor as franchisees.
• Preston-based Brewer & Turnbull claims to have been Britain's biggest independent removals company in the sixties. Now it is trying to rebuild its national network by recruiting francisees around the country. The company wants to increase its number of agents from 17 to over 30 this year by taking on small firms who can run their own local operations alongside the franchise.
Brown & Biggs, of Lewes, East Sussex, maintains such a double identity, running six vehicles in its own and Brewer & Turnbull's liveries. It has separate telephone lines for the two businesses, advertises twice under the two names in Yellow Pages, and has two sets of business cards for its two directors. Staff even have two uniforms.
Owners of the Sussex company, sales director Dave Faulkner and operations director John Rossall, say the arrangement works.
They win business for their own firm, known locally, and for Brewer & Turnbull, which is a familiar name in the rest of the country and to whom they pay a fee for the franchise (Brewer & Turnbull has no vehicles of its own).
DIFFERENT STORY
It was a different story 15 years ago, when both men left Brewer & Turnbull in disgust at the way its then owner, a textiles group, was reorganising the national removals operation. Both were based in Sussex and decided to set up on their own by buying the name and goodwill of struggling removals firm Brown & Biggs.
"We could see the writing on the wall at Brewer & Turnbull, which was getting smaller and smaller," says Faulkner, who had been a director in charge of five of its 14 depots in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Bournemouth and Brighton.
He joined Rossall who in his 10 years with Brewer & Turnbull claims to have opened the UK's first removals container store, at Newhaven in 1967. "This was before Pickfords or anyone." But the "new hierarchy" wanted to make them salesmen, put them on commission and cut their salaries. They tried to move Rossall back to the group's head office in Blackpool. "It wasn't a happy time," recalls Faulkner, "but now we're running our, own business and flourishing".
They began with one vehicle, a 10tonne Leyland Terrier which the firm already had on lease. Faulkner, who had an HGV licence, drove, and Rossall ran their tiny rented office in Lewes.
Although they increased turnover from £7,000 to £35,000 in the first year, they found raising capital difficult and had to expand slowly.
Rossall brought shipping expertise to the company. Although most of their business was local, they specialised in interna tional work. In those days ernigi ation to Australia and Canada was booming, and they worked with a travel agent who set up films shows encouraging people to move abroad. They still send consignments overseas; this month they are shipping a Volkswagen Beetle to South Africa.
Ten years ago they "stumbled" into Army work, sending families' effects to and from Germany. Although they had no regular contract with the forces, they worked with an agent who advertised in the Army paper. At one stage, they were going to Germany every week with at least one van. This business has now collapsed following changes in Government grants to Army families which has reduced military work open to private hauliers.
"It was hard work," remembers Rossall. "Every Saturday and Sunday we had to turn vehicles around, unload them, put everything in store and load them again."
Today they run six vehicles: two Bedford 16-tonners and two Bedford 12tonners — one liveried in Brewer & Turnbull colours — a new Leyland Daf 13-tonner and a Mercedes 3.5-tonne van. Bodies are by Marsden Van Plant of Warrington. They own all their vehicles outright, as is common in the removals industry. The vans only cover about 40,000km a year each.
Until the Bedford truck name disappeared the Lewes-based company always bought Bedfords, which Rossall and Falkner say were the best for adding coachbuilt bodywork to individual specifications. "They were the mainstay of the removals industry. Everyone used Bedfords," he recalls. But they have been impressed by Leyland Daf s sponsoring of recent British Association of Removers (BAR) conferences, so last year they bought themselves a 13-tonner.
FRANCHISED OPERATION
The Brown & Biggs duo were reluctant at first to accept the Brewer & Turnbull franchise in 1984. They took it on trial without a contract for a year. At the time Brewer & Turnbull was launching its franchised operation and it was not a great success. They had no Brewer & Turnbullliveried van, no uniforms, and little backup. However, in 1985, they cautiously agreed to renew the arrangement for two years.
Slowly the work increased. Uniforms, a van and corporate account working arrived. "We took it on because we knew it was the way to expand," says Faulkner. The company moved into new offices in 1984, which provided parking space for vehicles and a warehouse for 120 storage containers.
Currently the business is split roughly equally between Brewer & Turnbull, international, and Brown & Biggs work.
The Lewes removal firm goes abroad at least every four weeks with its own vehicles, but has made two trips to Belgium in one week this month.
Most Brewer & Turnbull business tends to be long distance. "We get a lot of northerners who have moved south. If they move again they use us," says Faulkner. "We've just shipped someone from Australia and we're taking him back again. He went out originally with Brewer and Turnbull Birmingham 20 years ago."
El by Murdo Morrison