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From bulk farm produce to food dist button, when you

20th September 2001
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use RT Steward you g: the full family service. "I don't want to us subcontractors, because most of the take the job but you never get the pape work back which means I'm not in co piete control of the service. If I need t use subcontractors, I only ever use tw that I can trust, and both of them are n sons," says managing director Be Steward {pictured, right).

His son Andrew runs A&S Far Enterprises, a five-vehicle operation th is totally farm-driven. Alastair runs Tic Transport, which also has five trucks does driver-accompanied work t Europe and a lot of chilled distribution f companies from the Continent.

Their combined activities just abo cover all of the vehicle shortfalls an product expertise RT Steward will ev: need. However, there are additional re.

ens for them to meet the level of serioe demanded by their father's busiess. Along with their mother, Anne,

• h Alastair and Andrew are directors f

RE Steward Transport.

Bob Steward established the busiess 30 years ago, in 1971.1 worked on a when I left school, learned to drive lorry when I was 21 and worked for a °many called R Jackson Potatoes for en years. I told him I wanted to buy a ice, set up on my own and be a milnaire by the time I was 40. He said: 'Take that vehicle you have now and come and work for me.' I never looked back, and I learned a lot about business from the way he did things."

Life as an owner-driver began with an operating centre based at the farm belonging to his own parents-in-law. The first delivery was a load of potatoes, and you might say that since then business has grown. The fleet of 40 vehicles and more than 60 trailers operates from a large depot in Manningtree which has its own dedi

Gated warehousing. Its vehicles may carry several hundred tonnes of potatoes a day, plus a few hundred tonnes of beans carrots or sugar beet.

The annual turnover is now more than £4m, an achievement that has provided the company with a high profile as a haulier of integrity and has earned Steward the right to speak out about national issues affecting the haulage industry. You might recognise the name Bob Steward as one of those prominent in the East Anglian fuel protest movement and a contributor last year to the House of Commons Environmental Transport and Regional Affairs Committee. Speciality

Several factors

He says several factors have created his own company's success. It has diversified, for instance, and is not just a farm produce distributor any more.

'`A good few years ago we realised that if people have got to eat, food distribution was always going to be a popular activity, so we moved into chilled distribution. We now deliver chilled and frozen products like chips to burgers, and bacon and beef to markets, as well as to the regional distribution centres of the large High Street supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda."

The company includes the whole of the UK as its theatre of operations, and also makes regular trips abroad to destinations such as Holland, France and Belgium.

In the food distribution industry, with large high-profile customers to satisfy, the quality of the vehicles is everything, and Steward has invested heavily in equipment, adding five vehicles in recent months. However, he believes another reason good equipment is important is to attract the best drivers.

"With the state of the industry at the moment and the shortage of drivers, if you have a nice truck you encourage the right people to come and work for you. We have drivers here who have worked for us for 25 years, and we believe continuity is essential for good service."

He says there are only so many good drivers around, and the approaching legislation that is likely to restrict the hours they can work is not likely to help the current shortage. However, there are other ways to meet the shortfall.

"We found that when we tried to get bigger we had trouble attracting new drivers. By contracting a little we solved the problem. So now we have decided we don't want to get bigger," says Steward.


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