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PR FILE IMONWIIIITIS

27th November 1997
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Keywords : Clothing

Football crazy Simon Willitts International flies the flag for its local team, Derby County, wherever it hauls in the UK and abroad. Its goal is to be the best in a tough business, carrying fashion garments for high-street retail chains—and it's got more work than it can handle.

.,

. Drivers at Simon Willitts International 6' i don't just take pride in their work, >

z they go to work in their prides. o

1.. Managing director Simon Willitts has named -,1 the latest additions to his international fleet Iafter Pride Park, the stadium recently opened 8 by local premier football league team, Derby 0,-County Club.

1 The fleet already runs in the club colours of black and white, so why choose Pride Princess land Pride Prince 2? "Wherever you go, people in business talk football," says Willitts. "We've had unhappy Turkish drivers in here who can't speak a word of English, but they recognise the Croatians in the team photograph and suddenly it's all smiles."

The company has already received several calls about the two new MANs, which also fea

ture the club badge; it could lead to further business opportunities elsewhere in-Europe.

However, football isn't the only topic of conversation around the company's West Hallam base: they also take a lot of interest in fashion. That might seem unlikely until you realise that this 20-year-old outfit makes its living in the hanging garments market.

When it comes to transport matters, Simon Willitts Transport (SWT) has the ear of several leading fashion retailers, including the Burton Group, Freeman's and high-street retailers such as Next, River Island and C&A. If that line-up is impressive, so is the manner in which the business has grown. Rather than being a story of small company survival in the highly competitive fashion distribution business, this is a tale of exploiting opportunities and building success through determination.

Some 20 years ago, Simon Willitts was an 18-year-old cloth cutter who saw an opportunity on the transport side. He set up SWT with a van bought for £500 on the promise of delivery work from his former employer. Only 10 years ago he was still an owner-driver running exclusively within the UK. Then Willitts made the decision which he regards as his toughest to date: he doubled the size of the fleet.

Back bedroom

In 1991, having acquired his eighth vehicle, he finally decided it was time to move the business out of the back bedroom. That was a wise move: his UK and international divisions now employ 33 staff and run 25 trucks with three regular subcontractors, so by now the bedroom would have been a little crowded!

The company operates from a 930m storage and trans-shipping site near Derby; thanks to a close working relationship with a Portuguese haulier, there's also an operating base in Oporto. A second depot in the UK is about to close– because SWT is running efficiently enough to do without it. "We have one customer who insisted I could not do a particular job without a London-based site," says Willitts. "It has taken me three years to prove him wrong."

That determination to prove a point by performance runs through a business which has made a name for itself in a sector dominated by bigger players such as Tibbett & Britten. "When The Burton Group releases figures showing which carrier has shifted what, people wonder how we do so much," says Willitts. "We might be number three on hanging garments, but we are regularly number one on boxes and pallets. That's because we double and triple shift the vehicles if need be. We plan things more effectively and we have a reputation for getting our quotes in quickly."

Midnight

Willitts reckons that many of the bigger operators need to have several meetings before they can come to a decision, which gives smaller operator an edge: "If a customer throws something at us now we'll be here until midnight, but we won't mess about with projections on the screen," he says. "It's just pen, pencil, rubber and brain. The quotation will be in their e-mail basket by the next morning."

No one could argue with that tightly focused approach to business, but Willitts reckons his company's success has also been helped by his lack of a haulage pedigree. Quite simply, he was forced to approach the business with a fresh viewpoint.

"Some of the family hauliers want to talk about taking the gearbox out of the truck all the time," he says. "The only ratios we're interested in here are on the balance sheet. We had no preconceived ideas— everything we do is self taught."

SWT has taught itself expertise in just about everything to do with hanging garments, which are mainly delivered on straight or step-frame 13.6m trailers fitted with the GTS "honeycomb rail system". Sometimes garments or accessories require processing on the retailers' behalf, and SWT offers this service too.

International operations manager Andy Stevenson explains: "They might come in boxed so we have to unpack them, steam them and label them before putting them on hangers. We sort that out. Sometimes they arrive boxed inside containers so we have to unload them, label them, shrinkwrap and palletise them, ready for delivery to the customer."

Most of SWT's work involves next-day UK delivery. A certain amount of storage and cross-docking is required to meet the computer-generated delivery time slots that most retailers use—that means loading in delivery sequence and mixing loads. All the trailers have side doors to make handling easier at the various regional distribution centres, says Stevenson.

The international side of the business took off about two years ago as a response to an enquiry from a customer, and Simon Willitts International was born.

Regular runs are now made to France, Spain and Portugal. The international operation already generates 25% of the company's turnover and that proportion is growing fast. Stevenson explains: "Since Tony Blair got in, this industry—clothing manufacturing—has seen a massive movement away from the UK. Machinery, clothing, it's all going out The retailers want cheaper garments and they won't sell it above a certain price. They cut their costs by sending the cloth out to countries like Morocco, Tunisia and Portugal as well. They bring it back as garments. The same thing is happening across Europe."

That sounds like nice work if you can get it, and SWI is getting rather a lot. Two years ago the company had one trailer a week returning from Portugal; it now gets up to 10. Three more regularly come in from Morocco, and the depot is used as a transshipping centre by hauliers carrying fashion goods from many other low-cost countries.

"I used to boast that the company only ever did 10% of what it was offered," says Willitts. "Now it's down to 5%. We have just been inundated with work and in 20 years I've never seen anything like it. I told one company earlier in the year that 1997 would be the year of the carrier. I said 'tie in with us now and you'll be alright for Christmas.' She said 'no, it's dog eat dog out there and I'll get the best prices if we stay with ad hoc quotes.' Since then we've been too busy to do very much for them; only about two loads out of a potential 40. On the other hand, we've customers in the last hour which have booked lorries for tomorrow. They backed us with written prices so we'll find those lorries."

Part of the boom has been generated by the failure of three competitors, all around about the same time. One of these led to a late call from The Burton Group, which urgently required extra vehicles in Portugal. Another call came from a leading supermarket chain, a little closer to home.

"We never advertise, says Willitts. "We don't need to. Companies ring us because they have been told we can sort out a problem.

"They say the previous company was lovely and cheap. It was lovely and cheap but it has let them down because it didn't have the right sized vehicles or something. I just say let us get on with it. We've got the kit, we've got the knowledge. Your goods will be delivered on time—but don't expect it to be done for nothing."

[L1 by Steve McQueen

FACTFILE: Simon Willitts Transport/ Simon Willitts International BASED: West Hallam, Derbys. FOUNDED:1977. CONTACT Simon Willitts, managing director. FLEET Mixed; 15 on UK duties, 10 international, with regular subcontractors. Specialist equipment includes 13.6m straight and step-frame trailers fitted with GTS honeycomb rail systems. Most recent purchase, August 1997, two MAN 18.403 Roadhaus tractors. SPECIALITY CONTRACT: Hanging garments. TURNOVER: £2.5m.

Tags

Organisations: County Club
Locations: London, Derby

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