THE SPECIFIERS – PART 2
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McMINN WHOLESALERS
Keeping up the worklow in a recession
A family affair
In the second part of our Specifiers series, we look at hardware wholesale supplier McMinn, a member of the giant Decco group, its rather unusual warehouse space, and why the company is singing the praises of Isuzu.
Words: Colin Barnett
Ifyou’ve ever bought any DIY, housewares or gardening products from your local independent retailer, including the Fair and Square retailing group, chances are that it was the Decco group that provided the goods.
The wholesaler uses its bulk purchasing power to allow the independents a ighting chance of competing with the huge national DIY superstores.
McMinn is a member of the Decco group, a nationwide network of wholesalers, owned by a giant American parent, but operated as autonomous “family” businesses.
There are currently 17 outlets listed throughout the LTK; around a third are branded as Decco, while the rest trade under their original names.
McMinn’s territory approximates to a box, with the corners in Birmingham, Leicester, Kent and Dorset, all served from a tranquil rural base at Chesham, on the edge of the Chilterns, but a scant 10-minute drive from the M25.
The fact that the staff don’t ind the work too onerous is relected by the proportion of the 60-strong workforce with more than 40 years’ service, which also includes a handful of the drivers.
Working a four-day week, with different hours summer and winter, probably helps as well. The warehouse operates Monday to Thursday, while the trucks are out on the road from Tuesday to Friday. Apart from a number of demountable bodies, which can be pre-loaded, each driver loads his own truck with between nine and 15 drops per day, almost all of which are then off-loaded to the predominantly high street retailers by sack barrow. Good local knowledge means drivers ind suitable nearby parking, motivated by the irm’s policy that drivers pay their own parking tickets and other ines.
The McMinn company was founded by Dougie McMinn in the early post-war years, with a round selling assorted housewares from a bicycle, then from one shop, which turned into a bigger shop, then to the £13m wholesale business it has evolved into today.
Facing his personal demise in the late-’60s, McMinn pledged to leave this world as he had entered it, and gave away his personal wealth, partly to his staff and partly to found the Douglas McMinn care home in Chesham.
Steady expansion
No doubt helped by the ‘credit-crunch’ effect, which has seen people stay at home and improve their properties rather than move house or jet off on expensive holidays, the irm’s fortunes remain buoyant, and it continues to expand steadily.
Although stopping short of a John Lewis-style worker partnership, the McMinn staff still enjoy a proit-sharing scheme that hasn’t failed to pay out in recent years.
Des Hydon is a classic example of progressing through the ranks from the workshop loor – he has 14 years’ service with the company.
When the previous leet manager inally decided to hang up his clipboard at the age of 72, Hydon stepped into the gap. It’s very much a hands-on role, since the on-site workshop shares the company culture of everyone being prepared to do everything. As a result, Hydon still carries out the two or three safety inspections required each week, together with all of the routine maintenance and minor repairs.
Apart from a solitary Mercedes-Benz Atego, the 17-strong McMinn leet was exclusively Iveco until this year, roughly a 50:50 split between 7.5 and 13-tonners.
Company policy sees all trucks bought and paid for from cash reserves, and kept for 10 years, during which time they’ll cover some 500,000km.
For a long time, McMinn’s body policy was based around boxes from Rohill in Andover, until its dificulties in 2004. Now, it uses BATS (Body and Trailer Services) from Northampton, and is being converted to the curtainsider concept, although most loading in the yard is done through the rear in one of seven loading docks.
The height of the door leading to four of these docks dictates the overall height of the trucks, while their overall length is limited by the need to use the Isle of Wight ferry.
For the future, Hydon says: “We had a 7.5-tonne demonstrator from Isuzu, which had a half-box, half-curtainsider body – that’s a design we’re keen to explore further.”
Staff input
McMinn’s driving is shared by 10 staff drivers, with agencies providing the remainder as required. This is not entirely through choice, however.
While the existing drivers tend to be long-serving, inding new drivers prepared to accept the considerable amount of ‘hand-balling’ is getting harder. The staff drivers are well appreciated, though. They get to drive their own allocated truck, and their feedback on vehicle speciication is actively encouraged, and given.
For example, they’ve requested that the latest wideangle mirrors are retro-itted to the older trucks, to make life safer while making town centre deliveries.
Hydon’s irst major procurement task came when the irm decided that an increasing amount of work delivering larger loads of compost to garden centres and nurseries might justify replacing a couple of 13-tonners with maximum weight four-wheelers. Approaching the initial paper exercise with an open mind, one ‘out-of-thebox’ alternative to the obvious Iveco was spotted in Commercial Motor’s 2008 CV Show coverage in the form of the Isuzu Forward 18-tonner.
The slightly lower cost appealed, and its relatively low-tech mechanicals and minimum of electronic gizmos were attractive. Although probably not to everyone’s taste, the fact that the Isuzu retains a full complement of traditional grease nipples was seen as a positive beneit. A half-tonne payload advantage over the Italian was the clincher that called for a demonstrator.
The demo went well. The drivers liked it, particularly the space and comfort of the day rest cab, and management was impressed by the economy, the warranty and support package.
Surprisingly, the drivers didn’t mind the lack of an available auto transmission, although the current lack of Euro-5 gave rise to a bit of thought. However, two Forward 18-tonners were duly ordered from Chassis Developments of Leighton Buzzard, which was already well known to McMinn as the local tachograph centre.
The only downside to the deal was the three-month delivery time, which stretched to ive – always a risk with the irst examples of a new model. But Isuzu covered the gap satisfactorily with loan vehicles and the newcomers were registered on 1 March.
CM arrived at the McMinn yard early on a Monday morning, exactly ive months after the Isuzus arrived, to ind Hydon starting the monthly reconcile of fuel usage and mileage.
To say that the Isuzus have impressed both Hydon and the management at McMinn is an understatement; Hydon states: “I’ve found nothing I don’t like yet.” Top of the list of positive impressions is the fuel economy which, despite the truck’s newness, is already averaging 13.5mpg. This compares with 12.5mpg13mpg from the larger Ivecos, and is particularly impressive when you remember the Isuzus are operating at 18 tonnes compared with 13.
Although all Isuzu buyers get Isuzu Truck (UK) MD Nikki King’s mobile phone number, it hasn’t been needed yet. It’s fairly safe to say that Isuzu will feature on McMinn’s shortlist next time around. ■ SPECIFICATION: LK09 AEP Vehicle: Isuzu Forward F180.260 Engine: Isuzu Euro-4 six-cylinder with EGR and DPF Power: 256hp (191kW) at 2,400rpm Torque: 761Nm (561lbft) at 1,450rpm-2,450rpm Bore x stroke: 115mm x 125mm Displacement: 7.8 litres Transmission: Eaton six-speed manual with overdrive top gear Rear-axle ratio: 5.38:1 Tyres: 295/80R22.5 Specification: BATS curtain-side body
ENERGY NEEDS
No one could actually put a date on the original building, which is a former flour-producing watermill on the banks of the River Chess, but we were shown a dating plaque on one of the newer buildings, erected in 1902. The area now covered by yard and warehouses was originally a watercress bed.
The physical layout is responsible for much of the way the warehousing works. There’s little in the way of fancy materials-handling technology beyond a fork-lift truck. Movement throughout the sprawling multi-level warehouse relies on manpower and gravity, with various levels connected by gently sloping wooden-floored ramps. However, a system that places lighter objects on the higher levels, while the heavy and bulkier stuff, such as bagged compost and wheelie bins, stays at ground level, ensures a manageable amount of physical effort.