Go-it-alone bodybuildel
Page 56
Page 57
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Improvisation and rapid decision making are frequently called for in this fragmentec market where few firms employ more thar 100 workers. By John Darker.
ONE of the most exciting things in life for many people with strong practical experience of industry is to set up on their own, thus making themselves responsible for their destiny. It is a challenge rejected by the majority of people because of the risks involved. Hard workers with ideas are prized by employers and usually given inducements to stay.
Family responsibilities, especially for those with children, tend to deter all but the bravest. And those sorely tempted to have a go can all too easily funk it if the general business climate, and levels of taxation, discourage the exercise of entrepreneurial talents.
A very powerful urge to try your luck can come at any time in life. Geoff Lightwood, managing director of Keyway Commercials Ltd, had been in the motor bodybuilding business for more than 30 years, working hard on behalf of his employers with director status as his reward. But Geoff came to think that if his business life required him to worry his guts out on behalf of others, it could make more sense to do it wholly for his own company. That explains his decision, with full backing from his wife, Barbara, to form Keyway Commercials Ltd in 1979.
Today, Geoff Lightwood will tell you that he wished he had taken the plunge earlier, but, as he says, it is a decision that requires confidence, born not only of wide experience of the body/coachbuilding trade but of the possession of a wide circle of contacts.
Twenty years ago, I surmise, Geoff would have made a successful business because of his flexibility, adaptability, sound design and workmanship, and the simple desire to give good customer service. But these qualities alone are obviously more likely to help a business to grow if the boss is personally known to a wide circle of potential customers.
Keyway Commercials soon demonstrated that it could undertake a wide variety of jobs competitively. In premises too cramped to permit much expansion of turnover the opportunity to move into a much larger manufacturing unit, with 16,000sq ft of uninterrupted floor space to play with, was welcomed.
The new factory unit, on the Planetary Road Industrial Estate, Wednesfield, West Midlands, is a mere ten minutes from the M6. Its location means that it is close not only to many potential customers but also to suppliers to the trade.
With controlled expansion the company objective, Geoff Lightwood has been joined by Neil F. Perkin, as sales director. Neil has been in the industry for 16 years, for much of that period on the sales and marketing side, though with invaluable practical coachbuilding experience at the start of his career. A southern sales manager, Richard Rose, has also been recruited. With Barbara Lightwood as company secretary there is a powerful nu
cleus at the centre to make tl wheels hum.
Geoff Lightwood thinks ti best time to get going is duriN recession so that expansion ci follow from a firm base built difficult times.
The present handful of er ployees will hopefully be e panded to around 25 by tl spring and thence to 30 or 35 I the end of the year. Thereaftt the company will feel its wa there is certainly no dispositic to get to a particular size regan less of practicability.
But one of the strongest poin in the company's approach adaptability. I was anxious 1 learn whether the firm plannE to specialise on one or two sta dardized bodies — surely temptation for a newish car pany — but was assured th this was not the objective. F1 me reason, and a very good me, too many competitiors are ioing so. Neil Perkin said he was lot at all surprised that all inluiries received from circulating I price list for standard bodies isked for some slight variation. he willingness of Keyway Cornnercials to make bodies a few iches longer or shorter than the ieneral run, giving transport rid distribution managers preciely what they want, and withiut any hysterics, is sure to be welcomed.
The range of products includes ry-freight box and Luton bodies alloy and grp, curtainsiders, ide-access bodies, tilts, refrigeat e d bodywork, flats and ropsides, specialist bodywork f all types including panel van onversions and tipping bodies nder 7,5 tonnes. Paint work, lil-lift and crane fitting, repair fork and bodywork refurbishing re all part of the service.
New models in the curtainider, dropside and trailer marts are to be introduced. Keyray's standard alloy box and uton body range in aluminium icorporates solid riveting as a
standard feature with rivets at two-inch centres, All body fixings on the cantrail are on the outside of the internal body area to prevent water leakage. Strong steel rear frames are fitted to bodies.
The crucial problem of accurate estimating in bodybuilding is an obvious factor in profitability. A slapdash guess could be expensive.
Geoff Lightwood said he made a practice of working out estimates at home, without the stress of the workshop to distract him. Sometimes there was factual data derived from identical or broadly similar jobs to provide a good basis; at other times it was necessary tt call on a long experience, coupled with knowedge of the employees concerned and making allowances for the snags that could easily happen. Fortunately, today, suppliers of materials were very much on the ball, so that hold-ups through lack of the right items were rare.
Though, in theory, each firm could demonstrate its products direct to potential users, and this is sometimes done, the normal practice is to work in collaboration with dealers, whose sales force can often introduce a lot of work.
So bodybuilders would be unwise to try to short circuit established trading patterns in order to improve their "take". If the ultimate user and his dealer are happy to deal direct with the bodybuilder — and this may happen in circumstances — that is another matter.
Investment in the new factory is expected to provide Keyway with a capacity of 30 bodies a week, with good paintwork facilities and a collection and delivery service for chassis. In the new offices provision is being made for a drawing office though it may be some time before a full-time draughtsman could be sustained. An engineer/draughtsman would better fit the needs.
Illustrating the need for adaptability, Neil Perkin said that the company's recent work in fitting out vans for electricity and water boards involved different specifications for the area boards con cerned.
Bodybuilding is a fragmented market, despite the existence of about a dozen sizeable firms. Few bodybuilders employ more than 100 people. Even in the VBRA trade association, bodybuilders are in a small minority compared with repair specialists in the garage world. The bodybuilders' voice deserves to be less muted for their contribution to road transport efficiency surely ranks with their more vociferous brethren.
Operators wanting bodywork are exacting masters expecting completion of small jobs like dropsides in a day or two, and measuring quite large jobs on smaller bodies in days with perhaps an extreme limit of three weeks for the bigger machines.
Keeping the customers happy demands that workshop operations be juggled at times; jobs under way cannot always be completed if a higher priority job is wanted urgently. Improvisation and rapid decision-making are often called for.
But, to quote the old saying, "Where there's a will there's a way," maybe even a "Keyway". The name came from a suggestion of Barbara Lightfoot, when the idea of the company was born. Geoff doodled on a menu at a worthy function and the company logo took shape.
If a memorable name helps, then Keyway deserves to succeed in its brave expansion. There is much more than marketing blarney about Keyway Commercials Ltd!