T he fickle finger of fat moves in curious way: Had
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it not been for th snail's pace recruitment practice of the police, Hugh Owen woul never have become a haulier. It . more likely that he would b booking rogue lorries tha running his own fleet of 115.
The young Hugh was accepte by the police when he left scho( but found there was a six-rnont gap before he could join. He pt this time to profitable use b driving a van for a local operato Two things happened tha diverted him from a life c chasing villains: he discovere that he enjoyed delivery work an was approached by his boss' customers offering him work if h bought his own vehicle. So wit his brother Eurof in tow, who ha also just left school, Owe managed to rustle up the price c a Bedford Luton van.
The pair quickly found a nich in furniture delivery, collectin, from a supplier in London an, delivering tluough West Wales23 years on he still retains some c those customer&
The operation has moved on t develop a mix of dedicated lil contracts, warehousing an storage and Continents distribution, including a net "hotshot" auto component run t Barcelona using 17-tonn Mercedes. One of his majo contracts is with British Stec running about 50 loads a day or of Port Talbot. The job has mear an investment of .£750k in th past three years with 30 trailers i BS colours and a further six o order out of a total 100 trailers o the Continent.
New work has been picked u on the back of John Raymort Transport's decision to qui working for BS because of lot rates. Owen takes a different vie British Steel more than fair. It using your expertise in backloadi
The firm has depots in the Mi London and uses the triangle cre steel to the Midlands, backloadin components to Dagenham befoi in east London hack to Wales. operation is also run for Swanser extruder, Alcoa, with £600,000 trailers in the customer's livery For other customers, Owen ha an expertise in storage and on with the recent purchase of an c taking capacity to 37,000m2. include 3M video tape divisi radiator components manufactu