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Castel! Howell Frozen Foods started life transporting chickens. Since then
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the firm has spread its wings and now supplies food of all descriptions to catering outfits and restaurants—it even supplies pot and pans. Most impressive of all is the fact that company turnover stands at £27m. Pat Hagan reports.
t all began with a few chickens. Twenty years ago, Brian Jones was carving himself a small piece of the local fresh meat market from his farm in South Wales when a rare combination of adverse circum
stances and astute business acumen propelled him into two decades of virtually uninterrupted growth.
At the time, in 1984. Jones' fledgling business involved supplying chickens from his Castell Howell Farm in Carmarthen to a local retail outlet. But after suddenly losing the contract, he was forced to -try and drum up new trade.
It was when he was knocking on doors and making new business contacts that things began to change. Customers began to enquire whether he could also provide other products as well as chickens. fortes, realising the opportunity for repeat busi
ness, always said yes on the grounds that somehow he would source whatever they wanted.
Giving the customer whatever they want appears to have remained the company 0
D philosophy throughout the expansion which has seen Castel' Howell Frozen Foods mushroom from a small local supplier to one of the largest food wholesalers in South Wales.
Today, the company boasts over 1,5oo customers, 16o staff and more than 30 vehicles in its fleet. Turnover is growing month by month—it currently stands at around f27m—and there are more than 7, 000 products on offer, including the chickens.
"Customers would ask Brian if he could supply this and that and he always agreed to get it for them," says Simon Davies, transport manager, "First, he started ordering in frozen cod to supply to the local chip shops and then he bought a couple of trailers to keep the frozen stuff in. From there, it just snowballed."
What started out as a family partnership soon blossomed into a limited company and by 1990—just six years into the business— Castel) Howell Foods had already outgrown its base at the Jones' farm.
A move to new premises allowed the company to establish a new purpose-built unit, which, at the time, it thought would more than accommodate any future growth.
But two extensions to the warehouse plus the setting up of a major cash and carry operation have since put space at a premium once again.
Now the company has set up a satellite depot in Merthyr Tydfil, thanks to a lucrative pie contract and, just recently, it has branched out into Gloucester where it is targeting local restaurants, cafes and catering outlets.
One-stop shop
Today, Castell Howell provides a 'one stop shop' for caterers of all shapes and sizes. From frozen goods, it branched out into dry goods and with cash and carry has deliberately stocked every line a customer could want. From fresh meat to ketchup, and from cheeses to pots and pans. A new sideline is the making of sandwich filings for caterers who want the convenience of buying them in.
It's a flexible and complex operation that requires a fleet 01 33 vehicles to distribute quickly and efficiently. Most are in the 7.5-18.0 tonnes bracket, as befits the nature of the job—a daily round of multi-drops and the need to load and despatch at short notice.
"Customers often ring on a Thursday or Friday—they are our busy days," says Davies, who has been with the company four-and-a-half years. "Often, they'll see the weather improving towards the weekend and expect lots of holidaymakers. That's why we have two 6.5-tonne Iveco Dailies in our fleet; they're kind of like our rapid response unit. "The idea is that if a customer has run out of a product we will get it there without delay. People do respect the fact that whatever problem they might have, we will try to help them solve it. After all, you never know what other business they might have, or who else they might know."
The round-the-clock operation at Castel] Howell sees the 30-strong warehouse team picking and loading vehicles in the early hours of the morning, ready for the trucks to leave the depot anywhere between o3:oohrs and o7:oohrs to start their drops.
The 29 staff drivers can have anything between ao and 50 drops in a day but, in the busy summer months, the company takes on extra staff to help drivers keep to their schedules and ensure customers get deliveries on time.
Fair wage
"We pay a fair wage for the area," says Simon "and we feel that our drivers are the company's ambassadors. We've never been a company for agency drivers and we have a core that has stayed with us. Over the last two to three years, I would say we've only lost about four or five drivers."
The make-up of the fleet has changed slightly in line with the company's growth. Smaller trucks in the 7.5-tonne range have made way for bigger ones in order to handle greater capacity. The most recent purchase was a 44-tonne Iveco Stalls, bought specifically to service the Gloucester operation.
"We've bought 18 vehicles in the past two years," says Simon. -They are all multi-temperature to accommodate the job. Obviously we've put a few smaller ones to bed at the same time but the growth of the company has been there so we've moved from 7.5-tonners, which have a very small carrying capacity, to 12 and I8-tonners which give us a better working space."
Ivecos dominate the fleet—mainly, says Simon, because of running costs and superb service back-up from local dealers.
The prospect of the Castel]. Howell fleet staying at 33 is about as likely as the Chancellor announcing free diesel all round for a year. With 14 sales reps constantly drumming up new business and turnover growing at an impressive rate, its success seems certain to continue. Great news, unless you're a chicken.