SWEDES BUY INTO BULK
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Swedish money is helping the E & J Meeks empire to expand — the company's latest acquisition, Sam Longson of Chapel-en-le-Frith in Derbyshire, is now investing heavily.
• The Swedes are coming. In March Consilium AB of Stockholm bought another long-established Midlands haulage firm, though you probably did not notice, as it was done very discreetly. Consilium owns E & J Meeks, the Nottinghamshirebased tipper and bulk haulage group, and it was through Meeks that the Swedes bought Sam Longson of Chapel-en-leFrith, Derbyshire.
The move may not be particularly startling in itself, but it does indicate that Meeks aims to grow through acquisition, with a strong supply of Swedish money behind it.
Consilium is essentially a manufacturing company, making materials handling equipment, conveyors and a range of dockside machinery. Buying E &J Meeks and its associated company Mansfield Roadways was Consilium's first move into the UK, and its first taste of the haulage business, The taste was obviously good.
According to Robin Meeks of E & J Meeks, Consilium is keen to move further into the specialist bulk haulage sector.
HOT BITUMENS
Though better known for its tipper business, Meeks is mainly concerned with bulk liquids including hot bitumens, tar and solvents. The tipper side of the business is still growing, but it still only accounts for 35% of the company's activities. The remainder is skip and general haulage work: "We came to the conclusion some time ago that we had to offer more specialist services," says Meeks. "The Derbyshire area has for a long time appeared to offer great possibilities for new business." They plumped for Longson, a well-known name in the region and a company due to celebrate its 50th anniversary this autumn.
The Longson fleet, based in the heart of the Derbyshire limestone district, is heavily involved in hauling the area's best known product. Around half of the fleet works on limestone haulage with chemicals and general bulk powders providing the remainder of the company's haulage activity.
"The Longson business was attractive to us as we have long wanted to have a bulk powder haulage sector within our business," says Meeks. "We did not want a new-start bulk powder operation as we have long recognised that this is an extremely specialised business requiring experience which we did not have."
Since Meeks' takeover in March the 50-strong Longson fleet has been through some major changes. Geoff Allen, Longson managing director, explains: "We were suffering from the effects of too little investment, with high repair costs and downtime, a result of elderly vehicles." To offset this. Meeks is investing heavily in premium 38-tonne tractors, new bulk powder tank semitrailers and 30-tonne eight-wheelers. The new vehicles are all from ERF, which is supplying 12 8x4 rigid chassis and 38 38-tonne 4x2 tractors, all with the Cummins E320 engine.
ER.Fs have always accounted for a large proportion of the Longson fleet: "We are well placed with a good local ERF distributor and also close to the factory, so we can obtain good back-up quickly," says Allen.
The first of the new ERFs are now in service and Allen forecasts that a major reduction in fleet repair costs will offset the investment costs. Once all the new vehicles are in service Longson plans a period of stability.
As at Meeks, the Longson policy is to run vehicles on double and treble shifts. Expansion is the key word at both copmanies. Since the takeover 25 new drivers have been taken on at Longson, in addition to the 20 taken on at Meeks in the same period: "We are expanding fast," says Allen.
Longson's expansion will continue to be based around bulk powder transport — Allen, who has been with Longson since 1981, has deliberately steered the company towards specialisation in this sector: "Since I joined the company, Longson has gone from being a major tipper operator to being one where virtually all the fleet are bulk tankers. There is still an important tipper division within the company, but we would certainly not have maintained our fleet size if we had stayed so firmly in the tipper business," he says.
Longson's business is benefitting from the construction boom in London and the Home Counties. This has created a tremendous demand for cement and other limestone products, which are trunked by Longson from Derbyshire. Besides its contracts with limestone product and chemical manufacturing companies, Longson has a thriving general haulage business which is unusual for specialised vehicles, but Longson has been able to make this sort of business work in the bulk tanker field.
Its new owner will help this side of the Longson business to develop as Meeks has depots in South Wales, the Midlands and Middlesborough which will provide fuel and maintenance points for Longson's vehicles.
The bulk powder business is strong in the North West, and moves to establish a Longson depot in this area, close to the M6, are being considered to facilitate work in the major bulk powder markets around Cheshire and Manchester, This move would not take the main emphasis away from Longson's depot in Chapel-en-le-Frith where the company's workshops are also benefitting from new investment.
Meeks made its name through intensive vehicle operation and high specification equipment: "We expect this philosophy to be reflected in Longson," says Meeks. Longson will adopt a similar vehicle replacement policy to the Meeks group, where tractors are replaced after three years. Meeks and its associate company Mansfield Roadways now operate 230 vehicles, most of which are ERF, DAF and Volvo tractive units.
El by Phil Reed