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The service provider
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BRS Truck Rental is overdue for an overhaul and its new managing director, Enrico Odorico, plans do it by focusing on service. Louise Cole reports.
BRS Truck Rental has been searching for its place in the modern market. Owned by Volvo AB, it has not sat easily within the truck manufacturer's global strategy. Tames Walker, its last managing director, did much to curb the company's floundering finances, aided by Hugh Cawley, who recently stepped down as acting MD in favour of new MD Enrico Odorico.But neither Walker nor Cawley managed a return to the profitability that has eluded the company for some years.
Odorico was hand-picked for the position by the Renault board, which has assumed overall responsibility for BRS. He is not deterred by the challenge. On the con trary,he says,he is very interested and enthusiastic about the proposition: -I had no hesitation. I looked through the figures and was then invited to Warwick to discuss matters. The quality of the operation here and its people convinced me to take up the operation."
Odorico intends to return BRS to profitability by 2008. which is an ambitious target. "We currently have a £53m turnover," he says."We plan to double that within five years.
"BRS has not been profitable in the past few years so a return to profitability is a major objective. I am here to redesign the company internally, and we have an ongoing project to reach targets on structure costing and growth, which we will certainly achieve."
He anticipates CM'S next question: "Why am I so confident? Because of our products, the vehicles, conditions and services we can offer,and our team. which has a vast store of knowledge. This is one of our greatest assets."
It's how you use them...
Previous management teams have also had these assets at their disposal, but Odorico believes in deploying them differently: "We have only to realign the knowledge we have here. From now on our focus will be on services, not vehicles," This is a point he reiterates several times during the interview: "We aren't bringing ideas about how to rent vehicles but services which we can deploy. The services are extremely important for the creation of added value for the final user. Vehicles are just a consequence. They follow as part of the service."
The services BRS will offer are based on the Tap compliance system, which includes paperless maintenance tracking and vehicle management. Odoricosays B RS will handle all aspects of transport management, including compliance and fuel economy. In time BRS will even oversee the customer's environmental impact.
BRS has a fleet of 2,000 and although Odorico expects this to grow to "reach critical mass" he feels the numbers are unimportant, both in BRS's fleet and to its customers: "We will manage fleets that have been rented from other parties. This is our strength. We are focusing on management and compliance services and the vehicles are just a logical consequence of our work."
Odorico says BRS's move within the Volvo Group to come under the control of Renault was an internal decision and quite possibly the result of conversations he knows nothing about. Ultimately, the reporting line matters little to the company as it has not been tied to offering group products for a longtime and operates autonomously.
Over the past 12 months the group has looked at all possible destinations for the operation, including sale. Previous management teams looked at the merits of an MBO,but the investment required to turn it around was too great and too long-term to for this lobe feasible.
Insiders have told CM that it was during these discussions, prior to Odorico's appointment, that members of the Renault team started to see potential in the business and volunteered to take it into their remit.
Odorico is convinced that even when it returns to financial health the company will stay with the Volvo/ Renault family: "There's a strong link, I believe, between the services we can offer and the global interests of the group. It remains to be seen whether we will become more significant participants within the group."
If BRS can pull itself around in the UK, it could be well placed to do just that. Odorico spent the first 15 working years of his career at Fiat and then Iveco, organising distribution networks in Scandinavia. He then constructed assembly lines for the companies in Africa, drawing on his engineering training.
After several years in Nairobi and Kinshasa he went to Ethiopia, where he oversaw the building of "the most modern assembly line Africa has to date. Ethiopia was an exciting time — we had a war while I was there." After the war, he returned to Italy to run the Iveco dealership network for northern Italy, finally taking over responsibility for remarketed vehicles worldwide.
First experience of the UK "I was based in Berlin, but had my tirst experience of the UK," he adds. "We had 6,000 units a year returning to 'Nem from big rentals."
His wide-ranging experience in other markets has left Odorico with lots of contacts within major operators throughout Europe: "We're thinking about the possibility of operating outside the UK because the problems operators face are the same and our solutions may well have the same validity. There is an interest from foreign operators in the services tested here because they see the UK as a mature market."
While the needs of operators ma} be similar he is well aware of the differences between markets: "In the UK, for instance, truck ownership seen as a risk; in Italy it's an asset.Alsc in Italy truck rental is allowed onl} between two transport operations."
Whether or not BRS expands into e greater role within the Volvo/Renauli group or onto the Continent, Odorioc is convinced the company has all needs for success: "We're in a magic position. We have a wonderful owner a solid owner, which has given us the economic resources we need to turr around. And we're a strong operata with good services and people. 'The results now depend only on us." •