ARRAN HAULAGE SERVICES
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THF ISLE OF ARRAN is knovm as Scotland in miniature, containing within its 25-mile length all the elements familiar to visitors north of the border. Highlands blanketed in purple heather give way to arable farms in the southern lowlands. There are ruined castles, standing stones and 28 licensed premises. Next year the island's first whisky in generations will be available from the Lochranza distillery in the north of the island. All this less than an hour's ferry crossing from Scotland's west coast and around two hours from Glasgow. But if Arran can claim to be Scotland in miniature, its principal haulier, the 16-truck Arran Haulage Services, based in the island's capital, Brodick, could equally claim the same mantle for haulage.
Proprietor Donald Bannatyne puts it succinctly: "We bring everything on to the island." This includes supplying its Co-op stores with chilled and ambient foods; the hotels with beer; the bakery with flour: the farms with animal feed and fertiliser retailers with hanging garments.
Then there are fancy goods, hardware and DIY materials and the myriad demands of the tourist season to inert when the island's population swells from its winter base of 4,500 to several times that number.
The company retails cement and building materials—accounting for up to a quarter of turnover—and supplies fish feed to the island's salmon farm, no mean task in itself. "They take up to 35 tonnes a week in early summer," says Bannatyne, "After that the fish stocks deplete." The company is also the island's main distributor for Calor Gas. All this activity represents incoming loads and when Donald Bannatyne says "we cannot specialise—you have to diversify ", he is not overstating the case. "We go out to come back." he adds, explaining that vehicles rarely leave the island more than 40's full. "Coming in is not a return load—that's the paying load."
However, it's not all one-way traffic. A cosmetics manufacturer, Arran Aromatics, exports soaps, balms and moisturisers all over the world. Arran Haulage warehouses and distributes its products and brings in raw materials such as glass and soap base. Another local manufacturer produces jams and cheeses. Bannatyne runs a milk tanker for the island's dairy collections and a livestock carrier for animal transport to the mainland.
At year's end he will have paid ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne £200,000 and clocked up 22,000 sailings. Four of the 16 trucks are 1.5-tonners specifically for island deliveries and collections. The business generates good profits in the summer. In winter, the situation reverses: "We lose money then," admits Bannatyne. "We try hard not to lay drivers off but if a man leaves we may not replace him," He recognises that a local employer, particularly on a small island, has responsibilities to the community: "We are an island-based company and we feel it's right to employ island men. There are jobs we could do cheaper with mainland men but we bite the bullet in an effort to provide employment."
Donald is joined by his father Donald senior who briefs CM on the background to the operation. The present company came about in 1988 when Donald senior's operation Bannatyne Motors merged with another island haulier, Arran Transport, to form Arran Haulage Services. Bannatyne Motors was founded by Donald senior in 1951 with one lorry and three buses.
"Between 1951 to 1965 we bought out four haulage businesses," he explains, "We started with four staff and finished with 28—including bus drivers—when we amalgamated in 1988." The island's bus services are now run by Stagecoach.
And has the recent vote for devolution inspired the two men? "The more I read the more I am going off it" says Donald senior, a confirmed unionist. His son is more philosophical: "It's like running a company—if the management's good it's all right; rind. you've had it" Just when Cilf thinks it's met a haulier who does every job going except international work. Donald junior lays his final card on the table: "In the winter we run turnips to Germany from Berwick and backload with groupage—just to take up the slack." Of course.