FORGING AHEAD
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Jules Adams and James Hardisty joined forces four years ago to change the image of Adam's family haulage company, J J Adam. They now have new premises, a new livery, and have more than tripled the company's turnover. Now they're involved in a major expansion drive into Europe.
• A timely move to a better location allied to a fresh style of management has produced dynamic growth in a wellestablished family haulage business on the South Coast.
The firm in question, J J Adam, based at Polegate, East Sussex, was begun by a Belgian who settled here after the First World War. For years it was run by the sons Mervyn and Jules.
In recent years it has flourished, partly through diversification and partly by looking back across the Channel to growing haulage turnover in mainland Europe.
Four years ago, the company underwent some major changes. Mervyn retired and Jules took the helm. The company relocated to Polegate from an old depot at Swingate Cross near He!Jingly, deep in the Sussex countryside.
In order to help him steer the company forward, Jules Adam appointed James liardisty as a director and general manager. Hardisty had started with the company six years earlier as a traffic clerk, and rising through the company, helped by his interest and ability with computers. Adam and Hardisty today work closely together, running the company and determining future developments.
You could hardly hope for a greater contrast in characters. Adam is a large man with an easy relationship with his drivers. He seems to call everybody "young man" and is loathe to talk too freely about his company. He drives a large blue diesel-powered Mercedes and doesn't wear a tie.
ROYAL BLUE
Charming and articulate, Hardisty wears a smart suit, complete with royal blue tie, gold tie pin and has a touch of grey at the temples. Together these two men have steered the company from a turnover of 21.2 million four years ago to around .:£4 million today.
"We were stifled at the old place at Hellingly," says Adam. "People laughed at the old place — it limited the company's potential. When we moved here to Polegate we started with new management and we were able to deal with much bigger work." The company's premises at
Polegate include 4,400m2 of warehousing and 650m2 of transhipment space.
The warehousing area has allowed J J Adam to diversify from haulage into a wider range of services including warehousing, packing and distribution.
These operations have grown at such a rate that the company is planning to build more warehousing on waste ground. "Today our warehousing is not big enough. We have more land to build on and we are getting pushed for space." says Adam. "When we arrived here in the early days it was like a big cavern; now it's not big enough."
J J Adam's diversification has allowed the company to spread its risks and grow without markedly increasing it fleet. Hardisty calculates that the vehicle line-up has increased by around six trucks to 43 vehicles since 1984.
Mercedes-Benz vehicles dominate the fleet. "A very long time ago we used BMC vehicles," says Adams. "We decided to change to something better, and decided to go for an Atkinson with a Gardner engine. We phoned the local dealer at 5.30 in the evening: he was not prepared to stop and talk. The next day a Mercedes-Benz rep provided us with a demonstration tractor unit, a 1418. We kept that up."
GERMAN BUILT
Adam describes the German-built vehicles as "very, very reliable. They are no more expensive overall than anyone else and we get excellent back-up and service from Mercedes dealer Panda Diesels at Newhaven." An order for seven new Mercedes-Benz trucks, (1625s for Continental runs and 1617s for domestic work) has just been placed with Panda.
"We use tri-axle tractors for Continental work," says Adam. "When you look at things like tyre wear, brakes, and axles, that's why we don't subscribe to six axles. I think that's perhaps over-specification on the part of own-account operators."
The company has been operating on the Continent for the past five or six years. "We have played with Continental work from about 1973 carrying the odd load," says Adam. "We have progressed to a groupage service which runs like a bus timetable.
We go twice a week to Holland, Belgium, France and Germany and we do a certain amount of full loads," he says. Most of the time there are five or six vehicles involved."
J J Adam does undertake full loads but will not join "the full load rate race," he adds. "The prices are so ridiculous; people are quoting for a little bit less than we can get the ferry for. Now, if a customer wants a complete service we can do it, we will offer value for money.
"We don't operate at 38 tonnes in this country, but we do on the Continent, "he says. "That's because we get paid for the extra tonnage. In the UK we are not paid for the extra weight."
FORGED LINKS
Adam and Hardisty have forged links with operators in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, which help the company to maintain loads.
"We think we're quite strong in Europe," says Hardisty. "We can offer a price for a trip to Rome or Stuttgart, and what's more we can offer the complete service with our own vehicle.
"More and more we feel that the customer wants a transport company working for them which will provide for all that company's transport needs," says Adam: "providing a complete service — even showing them how to save money."
In the UK this philosophy has helped the company to win a distribution contract with Beards of Sussex, a brewery which sells its wares through pubs and offlicences scattered between Bournemouth in the West and Rye in the East.
J J Adam took over the distribution of Beards' products in January 1986. Five Beards vehicles were replaced by two1 J Adam vehicles, two drivers and two draymen. Hardisty claims the contract has been so successful that Beards has been able to take on distribution work for other brewers using J J Adam's services.
A specialised Mercedes-Benz 1617, fitted with a step-frame chassis and Don Bur low-line delivery body, has just been added to the distribution fleet, replacing a 10-tomer.
Less specialised vehicles are required on J J Adam's other large distribution contract, with Shell subsidiary Wavin Plastics. The work involves the distribution of Wavin's plastic plumbing parts to DIY stores throughout the country.
J J Adam has held this contract since 1970, and in April 1987 the contract was expanded to include the packaging of the Wavin products.
A packaging machine was acquired to save on transport costs between the haulier's storage facilities at Polegate and Wavin's Ashford plant. Now ii Adam bubble-wraps all of Wavin Plastic's products for the UK market, and spare capacity on the machine allows the company to take on contract packaging work for other local companies.
Most of J J Adam's customers are local, but both Adam and Hardisty are frustrated by the state of the road network in the south-east of the country.
"The road networks here are abominable," declares Adam. "You have to start early to get over the M25 traffic barriers and we have to get there to get anywhere. Based here on the South Coast, you can only go one way and that's outwards; and that's why we're expanding over on the Continent."
Poor roads aside, the other major problem for a transport company in the SouthEast is finding staff. The Polegate firm's response is to train its own workforce. "We have recruited people from the North who can't afford to buy houses down here, including executive staff', says Hardisty. "There is a shortage of good drivers — we've trained six or seven to HGV standard so far this year," he says. "We're continually looking for youngsters to come into the traffic office for their first job; but we just can't find them."
Hardisty has gone so far as to commission a radio advert on the local radio station which is aimed at this year's school leavers. The ad is a brave attempt to attract youngsters while simultaneously raising the profile of transport — a task which both Hardisty and Adam see as necessary in their part of the country..
"We set out two years ago to change the image of the company," says Adam. "We felt that transport presented the wrong image. To attract the right type of customer we decided we needed to have clean and pleasant premises and our drivers and vehicles must be clean, attractive and presentable."
A small local design consultancy was called in to produce a new company livery, to be used on everything from the company stationery to the fleet of Continental vehicles. The consultant, Marshall Hopkins, had never worked on vehicle liveries before but the design it came up with is simple yet effective.
NEW COLOURS
"I think the livery has done a lot for us," says Adam. "One company asked me whether we'd been taken over when they saw it for the first time."
Roughly half the fleet is now turned out in the new colours and the remaining vehicles will be replaced by new, liveried trucks progressively during the next couple of years.
"We are now of the size and professionalism to deal with larger companies and national contracts," says Adam. "It wouldn't worry us competing against bigger competitors on medium-sized jobs. We can offer a good service — bigger companies are very professional, but we can equal their services."
All the people here believe in transport," he adds, "They will work on to see that a job is done. It's a way of life, not a job. If you haven't got veins full of diesel, you'll never be in transport."
0 by Richard Scrase