AN OWN ACCOUNT DIVERSIFKATION
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by Eric Gibbins
MOST LARGE COMPANIES recognized the opportunities offered to them for expansion by the transport legislation of the late 1960s culminating in the 1968 Transport Act. But few have taken advantage of it to the extent of the Tate & Lyle Group.
Not only have its transport subsidiaries, Tate & Lyle Transport Ltd and Silver Roadways Ltd, expanded steadily into the warehousing and distribution field but they have also branched successfully into the business of servicing and maintaining other peoples vehicles. The organization it has established to do this is Transport Engineering Services which is a division of Tate & Lyle Transport, headed by Mr Eddie Farley.
The division's basic objective is to provide a quality maintenance service to the heavy commercial vehicle industry on a national basis in main trading areas in close proximity to motorways; it was not designed to subsidize the TLT's fleet maintenance operation. The long-term aim is to provide United Kingdom coverage for heavy goods vehicle servicing, maintenance and repairs. A further function has recently been added—that of selling commercial vehicles—but more about that later.
Four mechanics surplus
It is true to say that TES started in Cardiff in 1968 although it had not been given its name at that time. The local depot of Tate & Lyle Transport found that it had four mechanics surplus to requirements. The local manager suggested that, rather than make these men redundant, they could be employed on outside repair work. Until this time company policy had been that its vehicle maintenance workshops should .not handle outside repairs.
However, it was rapidly becoming obvious at that time that the plating and testing requirements were generating a need for better maintenance facilities and it could be seen that there was an immediate demand for certain classes of work such as brake conversions. Accordingly, the go-ahead was given to Cardiff; and the operation was an immediate success.
As a result, an in-depth study of the potentialities of a similar function in other parts of the organization was made as part of a general appraisal of the future market for Tate & Lyle's whole transport function.
One of the main results of this was that the TES division was formed. This was in May 1970 and by this time the work at Cardiff had increased to such an extent that 6000 sq ft of workshop floor space and 2000 sq ft of stores area had been added to the existing facilities. This gave the branch there six double bays with two 32ft pits and a chassis washing bay. Equipment installed included a Kismet HPA brake tester, a 5-ton four-post lift, two workshop gantry cranes, wheel balancing machines and headlamp alignment checkers. In the course of its development it was realized that the branch was missing out on breakdown work so a heavy recovery vehicle was purchased. This was a Scammell Constructor with a 120 tons towing capacity and 25 tons lifting capacity. The vehicle also features extending booms for easy load transfer.
It was perhaps not altogether surprising that the long tradition of operating Fodens. led to the company being appointed at Cardiff as a Foden service agent. Events were not far off, however, which would change the complexion of this link with Fodens. Cardiff, incidentally, also has a close working arrangement with Primrose Group Sales in that area.
Long tradition
At this stage, the Cardiff operation was left for a period of consolidation and TES concentrated on its next expansion. This was at Taunton and here the problem was to convert the existing facilities to make them suitable for handling repair work from outside and outside sales. One of the main requirements was to establish a sales counter for spare parts sales and repairs booking and others were to extend the pits and install chassis cleaning facilities. Work to do these things was put in hand and as a result the branch's 4000 sq ft workshop has the latest equipment installed, facilities including two 40ft-long pits and a 1000 sq ft wash area for cleaning vehicles and degreasing. The stores, which cover an area of 100 sq ft, hold substantial stocks.
An unusual feature of the workshop is that it is equipped with three-phase refrigeration points to allow the body temperature of a refrigerated vehicle to be maintained while the vehicle is under repair. This is regarded as a particularly valuable feature of the branch in a predominantly food producing area of the country. The branch is also a Gardner recommended repairer and a York Trailer parts stockist and service agent. As at Cardiff, a 24-hour breakdown service is operated using in this case a 6 x 6 Leyland recovery vehicle capable of towing loads of up to 100 tons and with a crane lift capacity of 10 tons.
When TES came to open its third branch at Wandsworth it was faced with rather different circumstances. This was its first open market move. In other words there was no Tate & Lyle Transport maintenance work available to form a working backbone for the branch's operations. However, work started to come in very soon, particularly when the branch was made a Foden service agency. A close association formed with Primrose Group Sales and with Tilsley & Lovatt of Stoke-on-Trent, specialist in engine reconditioning, also helped things along in the right direction.
The pattern of the other two depots is followed at Wandsworth in that it is fully equipped to handle all heavy commercial vehicle repairs and maintenance including body and cab repairs and painting.
Since the Wandsworth opening, a small branch has been established at Swansea initially largely to handle casual repair work. The Tate & Lyle Transport workshop at Greenock in Scotland has been converted to operate under TES. Only minor alterations were needed at Greenock to make it suitable.
Major change
A major change in the development of TES occurred in September last year. Until that time, maintenance and repairs only had been carried out by the division and there had been no question of the organization handling vehicle sales. For several reasons, however, this policy was changed. One of the main ones was because Fodens at this time decided to shift from a policy of direct selling to selling through distributors.
As a result TES in January became the main Fodens' distributor for Somerset, Gloucester, Monmouth and a small part of Glamorgan. To cope with this activity, TES has established a sales office at Keynsham near Bristol and a team of sales engineers is being created to handle this side of the business. TES has plans which are well advanced for a further large maintenance facility at Avonmouth and eventually the Keynsham office will be moved to that locality. Foden spares will be held at Taunton and Cardiff.
Having decided to move into the area of vehicle sales TES has also taken on, operating from its Keynsham sales office, the Dennis distributorship for Somerset and Gloucester with workshop service being provided by the Taunton branch. This is forming part of the new Dennis distributor network across the UK.
Elsewhere on the sales front, moves have been made in London. Fodens' policy in London, says TES, is to have a free trade area—in other words no main distributor will be appointed. However, TES has appointed a regional sales area boss based on Wandsworth and has appointed a regional sales manager and sales engineer to cope with the anticipated work.
Not altogether surprisingly, TES says that further developments will occur in 1972 through the establishment (as already indicated) of the Avonmouth facility and through branches being established at Brighouse and other centres. These will be primarily concerned with the servicing and maintenance aspect of the division's function. There will also be developments on the sales side. The impression is that the organization is moving forward in a big way.