Forest fortunes
Page 42
Page 43
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The Forest of Dean on the north side of the River Severn in Gloucestershire is a closeknit community that has, over the years, suffered a decline in its traditional mining industries. Bucking that trend is Richard Read Transport, a family haulage business With the big, corporate, glossy logistics companies rigorously
tying their customers into a written contract, it comes as a breath of fresh air to find a successful, traditional, familyowned haulier who refuses to use such pieces of paper. "If I can't give them the service to keep the job I don't want it. I am old fashioned: my word is my bond."
That sums up the ethos of Richard Read and his company and it also comes from a man who has just spent ..£2.6m on a state-ofthe-art warehouse warehouse for a pharmaceutical company, Smithkline Beechambut with no contract.
The admission may stem from Read's beginnings as a haulier. In the mid-1950s, immediately after he had ordered three new ERFs from the Sandbach factory, one of his customers went banlaupt. Read told ERF he could only pay for one of the vehicles and the manufacturer simply told him to pay when he could. When he came to settle the bill 13 months later, ERF managing director Dennis Foden told him not to bother paying any interest on his debt but to keep on buying ERFs. And that is exactly what Read has done ever since.
Coke delivery
From his Longhope, Forest of Dean site there isn't much about an ERF the company doesn't know. It operates 25 tippers on a coke delivery operation and 40 tractors on general and dedicated transport work, much of which is just-in-time work delivering to local factories. A separate company Richard Read (Commercials) is an ERF dealership which Read Snr took on in the late 1950s after he sold the marque to his cousin on which he won the salesman's commission. He says of ERFs: "They're the best" He also concedes he likes buying British.
Richard Read Snr and his wife Mary Amelia, both 70 years old, are still active in the business. "They talk of retiring but they never will, it's their whole lives," says daughter-inlaw Kay who looks after the company's books. She is married to Richard Read jiff, who looks after the operational side of the business. In total, nine members of the family work in the business.
The company, with a turnover of £9m (they're rather more coy about profits) is clearly thriving, but could do so even more if it were allowed to expand. Like all families, Richard Read is caring but has had its difficulties. A seven-year fight for planning permission to expand its Longhope site has "cost a lot of money and caused a lot of headache", says Read kr.
Expansion, he says, would attract industry into the area. "We've lost jobs because we can't expand. We've tried to buy land in Cinderford, but no land space there is big enough. We were told we could buy sonic land in Ashchurch near Tewkesbury but that wouldn't help local employment,'' he adds.
This concern for the people and industry of the Forest—which is known for being a very close-knit community—is a strong family trait in which father and son take great pride. And while they may have fingers in a lot of pies they are careful not to tread on competitors' toes, realising they wouldn't do themselves any favours if they did.
"We're selling trucks and spares to our competitors so we work with them. We can't cut our rates to get into a place," says Read kr.
The new Sraithkline warehouse in Cinderford is an example of the company's commitment tp the local area. The 6,600m2 building containing racking equipment worth £.1.3m was built solely on a verbal agreement for the chemical giant. "We did it on a wing and a prayer and kept everything crossed," says Readkr.
Twenty-five Read vehicles, and some supplied by local stab-contractors, take empty bottles and flat-packed cartons from the warehouse to the Smithkline factory in nearby Coleford and deliver finished product in the form of fizzy drinks such as Lucozade to outlets in Manchester, London and Carlisle.
"The factory thrives on the weather. Our building is emptier and the vehicles are busier when the sun is shining because people drink more," explaim Read jnr.
The Read business is diverse. In addition to general haulage and warehousing, chassis engineering and tachograph and speed limiter analysis on its 11-acre site at Longhope, the company operates its 25 tippers hauling coke three times a day from Llantrissant, Mid Clam, to Avonmouth.
This round,the-clock operation is hard on the 38-tonne tandem-axle tractors with triaxle trailers, so they're changed every six years with the old Models sold through the dealership side of the business. The hot coke is abrasive and wear i the bottom beds; consequently
these need to be replaced every three years. And steep terrain in Wales mea life is shortened to 45-50,000 miles col to 70-100,000 achieved by the rest oft! On their journey the tippers cross the Bridge—the £3,000 annual tolls Rt describes as "astronomical".
The company works very much industries of the Forest—carrying frui beet, pipes, timber and fencing. It also rents at least 6,500rn2 of warehousinj area for its customers. We want to loi industry in the Forest of Dean and its bouring towns."
Are they ever worried that havira such a huge amount on a new warehr Smithkline Beecham, the chemica. might one day say "Thanks, but no ti "We've been running for them fc than 30 years. I think the service we gi, is out of this world," says Read Jnr, Li by Nicky Clarke.
FACIFILE; RICHARD READ BASED: Longhope, Glos. FOU Longhope, Glos, 1947. CO Richard Read. FLEET: All ERF; 25 6, 40 twin-steer tractors with Perkin Cummins engines and 80 AHP tr two fridge vans. SPECIALITY TRACT: Transport and warehousin dealership Richard Read (Comme founded 1956; recovery, chassis neering; tachograph and speed I analysis. NO OF EMPLOYEES: including 18 fitters. TURNOVER: