E astbourne doesn't exactly spring to mind as an industrial powerhouse.
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Business opportunities for a general haulier based in the town are at best limited. But Dobbs Logistics. which has been plying its trade in the area for the past 40 years, has turned this dearth of industrial activity to its advantage. "You get fairly set nicheplayer haulage companies in this neck of the woods," explains operations director Stephen Morgan. The advantage is that it virtually guarantees your market, because they haven't got a lot of choices if they don't use you."
But this doesn't mean that Morgan is complacent about quality: he's proud of his blue-chip clients, which include BOO Edwards of Newhaven. Dobbs distributes the company's mainframe computer equipment throughout the UK and the Continent in its air-ride Tautliners. The company also handles all the bulk g,roupage and distribution throughout England for ACC() UK, the office equipment manufacturer, which has its board plant in Eastbourne. And for CTP White Knight. maker of compact disc cases and video packaging, Dobbs makes regular trips throughout the UK and into Europe, delivering to Sony, Warner and EMI plants, Another regular is Berk Pharmaceuticals, also based in Eastbourne.
Add to this a further 120 regular smaller clients for which the company handles ad hoc work, mainly as backloads alongside the main contracts, and you get a picture of a very healthy business.
Dobbs Logistics was founded in 1961 by John Dobbs with a single Luton, but it was soon offering warehousing and a local distribution service. The business grew quickly, and by the 1970s it was handling domestic and commercial removals, storage and distribution throughout the country. In 1979 it moved to its present location, and in 1998 it merged with fellow local haulier Eurohaul.
"We have been growing ever since we merged the two companies, and we are still riding on the back of that," says Morgan. Despite this, he is frustrated by the government's treatment of British hauliers, and is considering flagging out. "Fuel and the tax disc are the deciding factors," he says. "It's crippling companies. We're doing quite nicely, but you've only got to come off the gas pedal a bit and tone your work down and you're suddenly losing quite a lot of money." At the moment Belgium seems to be the favourite target for relocation.
Operating in the South-East, he is only too aware of the unfair competition from across the Channel. On his ACCO contract he is limited to England, because foreign vehicles are creaming off the Continental side of the operation as backloads. "They can do it for less than the diesel would cost me to get where they are going," he explains. "There is no point in even going round there to quote. I know what they're doing it for, and there's not any point in mm even getting out of bed for it."
But Morgan is not pessimistic, and looks forwarr to a bright future for the company.
"There is a phenomenal amount of growth in thi area," he says. We are now nearly at maximun capacity on our fleet, so it's a case of building or our strengths. A solid balance sheet has nov appeared, so we can go forward and enhance thr quality of our client base."