THE LIFE OF RILEY
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Longton Storage and Transport boss Brian Riley has spent the past 18 months restructuring the operation. He has transformed several sister companies into a more manageable whole with one aim in mind — a better product.
• The road transport industry is frequently accused of not marketing itself properly. Haulage companies, the argument runs, sell themselves and the industry short by allowing the rough and ready, dirty-fingernails image to linger.
Brian Riley is not the sort of man who likes to be sold short. "If you want to get on nowadays you've got to look professional, you've got to be sharp and your people must behave in a respectable and responsible manner," he says, "otherwise you're dead."
As managing director of Stoke-based Longton Storage and Transport, he has been leading the sort of shake-up many medium-sized haulage firms need.
Riley moved to Longton in July 1985 — he was previously operations director with Lowfield Distribution. He found Langton ill-prepared for the rough and tumble of business in the 1980s. Though its operations were good, they simply had no guiding light.
"I took a hard look at the business, deciding what we should do with it, how it should be structured and how we were going to knit together its very disparate parts." Different, but related operations in the Longton group were then running -as autonomous businesses, with different names. Riley has pulled tham all together, and restructered the firm.
Longton's story sums up many of the haulage industry's failings. For instance: "When I arrived we had no salesmen at all," says Riley. Today the company has a sales and marketing manager running four sales divisions around the country.
"Selling used to be done by the management and the directors, which it is still is to a certain extent," says Riley. "It was what you might call passive marketing. The attitude was, let's wait for people to come and talk to us — we're a reputable company." He smiles.
INSULAR ATTITUDE
"Generally speaking, no-one beats a path to your door today. We had a terribly insular attitude and we weren't even exploiting our existing customers properly."
After looking at the group and deciding what he thought should be done, Riley went out and asked the customers. Longton sent out a large batch of mail-shot questionnaires asking existing and potential customers what they knew, and what they thought about the company.
The good news was many thought that Longton was a reputable and trustworthy firm. The bad news was that many did not know the size and the range of activities within the group.
"Unfortunately we found that we were known only as a distribution company to our distribution customers. There was no awareness of the other products and services we could offer. We were shocked — our customers had no idea at all of what we did," says Riley.
The lack of a salesforce was having a very clear effect, compounded by the fact that Longton's different operations went under different names. "Our haulage firm was known as North Staffs Transport," says Riley. "People would say 'I work for North Staffs Transport' — not Longton. Our export packing business was called Knight and Riley. There was too much individual activity."
All operations now go under the Longton banner and Riley has split activities into six product areas called Store Link, Fleet Link, Quick Link, Stock Link, Trade Link and Trunk Link.
"We are selling our six products very positively, using PR and advertising. Each one is identified with its own registered trade mark and its own livery," says Riley.
The old dark blue Longton livery has gone and grey is in, complemented by one of the six new logos. The related, though slightly different look of each "Link" truck is promoting the image Riley wants. "We need to be a company offering the same range of products as the NFC, except we do it with one management and one corporate identity."
RATHER CUTE
Longton is also being rather cute about the way it keeps its own name on the trucks, even when they have been painted in the colours of a customer. Valspar paints, a recent Longton Store Link customer, has its logo and name on the side of the trailer while Longton keeps its credit on the front headboard of the trailer and on the side of the cab.
"There is nothing better, in my view, than siting your logo alongside nationallyknown trade names," says Riley.
Some £600,000 was invested in new vehicles last year, and Longton is continuing to repaint existing trucks in the new livery. Riley explains the six "products" now on offer from Longton:
El Store Link is aimed at grocery distribution, and the carriage of foodstuffs and products like Johnson Wax and Evode. "We've got a broader opportunity to move into the do-it-yourself and industrial field here too," he says, citing Valspar paint as a typical example. Store Link customers are also offered stockholding and warehousing facilities — Valspar has its own warehouse next to Longton's Stoke head office. Tetrasil, Holt Lloyd and Dunlop are other Store Link customers and the firm is working hard to ensure deliveries are carried out on a disciplined, planned and regular basis. "The sort of customer Store Link aims at does not want vehicles
queueing at his back door," says Riley. We make sure we go in on agreed days at specific times."
EJ Fleet Link is the contract operation, serving big names like ICI, Bunzl and the London Rubber Company. The company offers Fleet Link customers a complete fleet management package.
E Quick Link is an express palletised load service for 300kg to three tonne consignments. Engines and other motor accessories are catered for here, where customers want an express parcels delivery service for heavier packages.
The vehicles operate on a regular trunking basis, with a sorting hub at Stoke for the pallets; most customers get a 48hour delivery.
E Stock Link is a dedicated warehouse service where customers can use the London warehouses of Longton's sister company, Bulk Storage. No transport is involved in this service.
E Trunk Link is a nationwide freight service. Riley wants Trunk Link to win more contractual, rather than opportunist
haulage business. It runs 40 artics.
Longton increased its total sales volume by 20% last year — all through organic growth. It should exceed 20% growth this year too, with a combination of new contracts and some acquisitions. Riley likes the idea of acquisitional growth — "you cannot afford to start from a nil base nowadays."
The company as a whole is aiming for a 20% return on capital and Riley is scornful of those companies offering low rates to buy market share at present: "Quite frankly, there is no point in being in business if you take work at any price."
Longton is obviously going to keep up the momentum. "This is only our first stab," Riley says of the changes. He is determined to do well and he is very clear-headed about why.
"Like most transport companies, we have very expensive resources. We really need to exploit those resources efficiently — in the nicest possible way of course."
[1 by Geoff Hadwick