Flying high Grays Truck & Van added a fifth Iveco
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dealership to its portfolio in 2010. Now 18 months down the line, CM visits the Heathrow site to find out how adding to the network has improved business Words: George Barrow / Images: Tom Lee Astone’s throw from Heathrow airport, and within touching distance of the M4, Grays Truck & Van is in the perfect position to service London, so it’s little wonder that after taking over the area from the previous Iveco dealer, Dagenham Motors, around £2m has been pumped into expanding the franchise.
The heavy investment has seen 15 drive-through workshop bays installed across a new 12,000ft2 dealership,
and the site has room for around 50 vehicles. This, says Grays Truck & Van MD David Littlejohn, will give Heathrow the potential to rival its hugely successful Croydon dealership for service and sales. That’s no easy task, as Grays’ Croydon dealership is thought to be the largest CV workshop inside the M25, carrying out servicing, repairs and MoTs.
But the network doesn’t end there, Grays also has two sites operating in Guildford, and its most recent dealership, prior to Heathrow, is in Reading.
Slow but continuous growth
Littlejohn says: “There was no dealer in Reading for nearly four years, so getting the site in 2006 was good for us, but expanding into Heathrow is fantastic. Sales have taken a bit of time to pick up as the economy begins to improve, but we look after a wide range of vehicles here, from 3.5-tonne vans to four-axle rigids and Stralis tractor units. Because we’re so near to Heathrow there are also a lot of airside vehicles, so there is business out here.” It’s clear that opening a new dealership at such an uncertain time was a risk for Grays, but fortunately for Littlejohn, Iveco was committed to the new site.
It’s a strong network that now extends into Oxfordshire and the majority of London, but for Littlejohn, Heathrow is about much more than simply extending its support coverage. He anticipates the new site will play a major part in generating new sales, and with the London Low Emission Zone (LEZ) regulations tightening further still at the beginning of 2012, the Heathrow dealership is ideally situated to serve customers travelling into London from the Midlands, the south coast and the West Country.
“There is an increase in demand across the entire range, and our product availability is good. At any one time, across the group, we might have between 60 and 70 Dailys and 40 trucks. The demand is partly to do with the LEZ, but Euro-6 will have an impact. Businesses are looking to save and are tightening up a bit more, but there are always people looking to buy. We’ve already sold four new EcoStralis tractors because the opportunity to achieve signiicant fuel savings at 44 tonnes is an excellent proposition [for operators].” While Littlejohn waits for the inevitable sales rush for new and used Euro-5 vehicles, he still has a prosperous parts and repair business to run. Grays Truck & Van holds more than £2m of Iveco stock throughout its network, much of it at the Guildford hub. Heathrow, and the other dealerships, get up to four internal deliveries a day, in addition to shipments direct from Iveco. Business was slow at irst but it is now a busy service, and one that is constantly being reined.
“A lot of people took vehicles off the road [during the recession], but the service and parts were the irst to pick up. We can service any CV make or model, and different sites have different needs, which is why we have monthly meetings here in Heathrow to try and improve customer servicing and parts picking. What works here in Heathrow might not work in Croydon,” says Littlejohn.
While Guildford and Croydon both do MoT testing, Heathrow does not, nor does it do tachographs at present. There is, however, still a constant demand in the workshop. For Littlejohn it’s all about balancing the work at Heathrow, although he does admit that he will be growing his 15-strong workforce of mechanics.
Improving accident recovery service
One area of growth across the business has been its accident recovery service. Littlejohn says the number of breakdowns experienced is reducing, but customers are keener than ever to get moving again as soon as possible. Grays tries to diagnose problems over the telephone to help expedite the process, but saw an opportunity to further improve its service by adding a motorbike to the leet of eight Assistance Non-Stop support vans. This, according to Littlejohn, is working extremely well.
“Our support vehicles cover customers right into London,” says Littlejohn. “We go as far as Dartford, covering about 75% of the city. We also go up to High Wycombe and north London to deliver parts to operators doing their own servicing too, which is why adding motorbikes to both the support and parts delivery operations has improved our service.” Despite dificult times, the addition of Heathrow to the Grays Truck & Van network seems to have fortiied its operations.
A major piece of the London puzzle has fallen into place, and although for now there are no further plans to add a sixth dealership, the success of taking over an already established dealer area, and transforming it using knowledge taken from its other sites, has put Grays in good standing both in Heathrow and throughout London. n