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together to form what is now BSG date back to the r9th century. They grew out of the Cottis family farm at Rochford, near Southend-on-Sea, Essex. As with many farming enterprises horse-drawn haulage became a lucrative side-line. This, combined with aggregates which were found on the farm, formed the basis of a building supplies business.
rt. 9:7' os, still mainly a
tractor, the company was geared up to take advantage of the potential shipping and forwarding trade offered by the proposed Maplin Airport project. It acquired xi acres of land and put up a warehouse, but the economy slowed and the airport was cancelled.
"We stood and looked at our fleet of lorries and our warehouse and we thought: 'what the hell are we going to do?' says BSG managing director David Cottis. "But we
d the builder's m my father that I was not going to put money into vehicles any more because there was no return on it. We might as well put it into bricks and stand them on the ground. Because a brick is still worth a brick. That's where I changed direction personally."
In the late 19805 jacksons of Barking came into the fold. This company is also over Too years old and was a Thames barge operator with an interest in building materials. The final piece in the jigsaw was iasildon Building Supplies, established by :ottis in 1985 after he escaped the family iusiness. By 1990 Cottis was running the vhole enterprise but this was not the time to ■ e heavily involved with the building trade.
The recession of the early 1990s hit the ompany hard, as it did the rest of the buildng industry. "We had a torrid time," says 2ottis. "In 1993 the company went into eceivership."
But he refused to be defeated. He found a :etired property developer who was willing to escue the company and BSG was the result. 2ottis even managed to weather the recession vithout laying off any staff
Dependable
[he company now has three branches: the niginal family business based at Rochford, iouthend; the head office at Basildon; and a iepot at Barking. It sells building supplies dong the Thames corridor, ranging up to 25 railes north of the river from the east coast hrough to Central and North London, with a urnover of Liom a year.
Every branch runs a share of the company's :5 trucks. The fleet still includes some ageing ...eylands but it's moving over to Seddon 6Lticinsons. "I've always had a perception of ieddon Atkinsons of having reliability and dependability, just like BSG. To me the two are synonymous," says Cottis. "They are not :-ashionable but they give the impression of 3eing good solid vehicles.
"Because we do a lot of multiple deliveries and not great mileages we think they are the deal vehicle for the job. A lot of the local authorities use them and that's stop-start so if :hey're good enough for them, that's a good ledigree."
Three new 24-tonne Stratos with Fassi zranes are on order and this marks a move away from 7.5-tonners. Because the vehicles rarely run at full capacity Cottis buys r8-tonne :thassis and adds a lift axle to upgrade them to 24 tonnes. The lift axle gives him the extra tonnage but allows for flexibility as small deliveries alter the balance of the load.
Where access is a problem Cads relies on the r8-tonne tippers that are based at each branch. A 7.5-tonner will be retained at each Location for especially awkward deliveries.
Most of the vehicles are equipped with cranes. "They used to be a service we could charge for," says Cottis, "but not now,, .they expect you to have them and you get no extra for it. So the capital cost is very difficult to get back."
The fleet is controlled by an operations manager from the Basildon HQ; he keeps tabs on maintenance and oversees the scheduling. However, each branch has control of its part of the fleet via a radio system. "Building materials are very time sensitive," says Goths. "They expect the service and are not always totally organised so they want it first thing in the morning or at set times, especially in London, so good communications are essential."
Cottis installed the radio system no years ago and is still happy with it: Each branch has its own base station, controlled by their respective traffic clerks. All the vehicles can hear all the transmissions," he says. "This provides a flexible system that can respond to unexpected demands and keeps the trucks in communication even if they are out of their respective areas.
Competitive
BSG's customer base is centred on medium to small builders and developers as well as the repair, maintenance and refurbishment market. The company also sells direct to the public through its branch showrooms and garden
centres; the Barking and Basildon branches run their own timber mills.
Cottis is well aware that the company's drivers act as BSG's frontline customer contacts: "I am very particular about the drivers," he says. "We invest in our people and spend an awful lot of time on staff issues and helping and understanding people. We all have our weaknesses but we try to build on people's strengths. If we say something and we don't perform then we have lost our credibility. We are customer service-led. This is a very competitive business and margins are very hard to keep up."
As a building supplies merchant BSG is well placed to take advantage of the regeneration which is taking place throughout the Thames corridor and in the East End of London. However, the traffic restrictions are a constant headache: "We can't go into London before crToohrs with anything over i8 tonnes gross," says Cottis. "We like to get up, get in and get out before the traffic. The builders like to get cracking and the coming London traffic charge is just going to be an extra tax which we are not going to be able to get back."
Cottis has been in the trade for 40 years but says he is still learning: "I think of myself as a builder's merchant with strong transport connections. We went into the recession but kept it all together. Reliability and dependability is what BSG is all about."