C Peter Cresswell has found his niche in the road
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haulage industry. Specialising in theatre haulage, he started small with fledgling arts companies and has grown to an international operation.
When Russia's Kirov Ballet tours Britain, Peter Cresswell's trucks carry its props, costumes and lighting. It is one of several contracts Cresswell has won with theatre and TV companies since launching his entertainments haulage firm, PC Transport, in Leeds five years ago, Other clients include Opera North, Yorkshire Television, Ballet Rambert, the English Shakespeare Company and the English National Ballet.
Cresswell, who owns three tractive units and 14 trailers, was for five years a driver with the company that is now one of his two rivals in the theatre market, Radcliffes of South London. He left when the company he was working with, Opera North, offered him a five-year deal to move to Yorkshire and set up on his own.
He bought a secondhand Scania and 'worked for Opera North on a four-month UK tour. The business gave him the chance to look for other contracts. He won his second with the Rambert Dance Company of Chiswick; that involved taking two trailers on a five-month British tour. Eighteen months later he took on a second Scania and a driver.
Opera North gave him the work because he was reliable and worked hard, he says. "I was a grafter — like them — and I excelled at what I did. But it showed a great deal of faith on the part of a major touring company to give a lorry driver such a major piece of business." Opera North is still his biggest customer and its contract with him has another 18 months to run.
Theatre transport is harder than most types of haulage, he says. Although light, sets are bulky, and awkward and have to be loaded by hand in the right order. Drivers often travel with one company for a whole tour and are responsible for making sure the right equipment is at the right venue at the right time — and a theatre group can have as many as three shows in a city at once.
"They are part of a team," says Cresswell. "Their input is as important on the technical side as the lighting or scenery man's. Although we're an outside contractor, we're an integral part of the company's success. Theatre companies put more emphasis on transport than almost anyone else."
Much of Cresswell's work now goes to the Continent. He has just taken a trailer to Turkey for Ballet Rambert and in February he had three artics on tour with Leicester's Haymarket Theatre in Eastern Europe. He hopes to clinch four foreign contracts for Shakespearian and dance companies this summer.
OVERSEAS BUSINESS The rise in overseas business has been fast "Until two years ago, we were going abroad twice a year. Now one out of three quotes each week is for an international job," he says. But going to the Continent can lead to problems. Although he charges according to the number of days a vehicle is away, clients sometimes resent having to pay when a truck is laid up.
"I've just had three abroad for seven weeks. They were parked for three to seven days at a time and only did 6-7,000km each," he says. But drivers have to be paid whether they are behind the wheel or not. Although he does make money from international work, he points out that general hauliers might make up to seven trips in the time it takes him to do one tour.
Cresswell is one of only three specialist theatre haulage companies in the UK, and the only independent. The others, Radcliffes and Lucking, are owned by NFC and Ocean Storage and Distribution respectively. "It's a niche market, but there are one or two firms on the periphery who duck in," he says. He has moved sets for the 3-2-1 comedy quiz show and a conference staging company, but he will not touch rock tours: "Too many people putting stuff up their noses", says Cresswell.
He runs two secondhand Scanias but has just taken delivery of his first new truck, a Volvo Globetrotter, and plans to buy another next year. He hires extra vehicles at peak times and has an 0Licence for 30 trailers which he hopes to extend to 40. He has two permanent drivers, but uses four subcontractors arid takes on temporary drivers.
The industry is seasonal. "Summer is deadly," he says. "Most theatre companies close or do shows in their home city." During the summer and after Christmas, he gives his staff holidays, does the hooks, buys equipment and plans for the next year.
Having a flexible fleet helps, but two years ago his brother — a financial director who checks his accounts annually — told him he was wasting too much on hiring and subcontracting. "Turnover was up, but profits were down. He said I should buy six trailers and a new tractor unit," says Cresswell, who admits to spending too little time on the books.
Cresswell turns over £400,000 as a sole trader and sees no benefit in going limited. He planned to call the firm Stagefreight ("I had a competition to think of a name when I was on tour and a ymmg lady in the props department won a half pint of Tetleys") but the name has never stuck. "Most people know me as PC, so that's what I call the company."
PFIAROAH'S PALACE He does not livery his own fleet as he hires so many extra vehicles. Maintenance is handled by Harrogate-based haulage company Houseman International, and Opera North rents him his office. It also has the lease on the adjoining warehouse, which is a former supermarket distribution depot and is full of props and backdrops: everything from the pharaoh's palace to skulls and candlesticks.
Cresswell who earlier this year won a prize of three Schrader tyre pressure equalisers in a Commercial Motor competition — still drives at weekends and reckons "it's the best part of the job".
He jokes that he is in showbiz rather than transport, but he has never been to see any of the shows he has spent months moving around the country. "I am not an opera fan," he says. "I am always offered seats but I refuse them. It upsets customers, but on opening night I always make them take me to the pub instad."