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event in the past couple of years, it's possible the grandstands and tents have been erected by LH Woodhouse.
nei, Operating arou he country on tight schedules it's a lo *stics jigsaw, with the weather as an added factor. And then there are the deer... County showgrounds are a 20th Century development. In the previous century agricultural exhibitions weren't held in a single location, but travelled from place to place. The organisers would hire a field from a local farmer and put up tents, stabling, animal pens, and so on. Much of what they erected was built from scratch, and sometimes the semi-permanent buildings would be left for the farmer's use when the show departed.
That was the world in which Ruddington, Nottingham-based LH Woodhouse established itself in the 1800s.
Today, it's one of the country's leading specialist show contractors, providing temporary structures such as grandstands, stabling, fencing and roadways, among other facilities for events such as the Burghley Horse Trials at Stamford, Lincs; the Royal Show at Stoneleigh, Warks; the Volvo PGA championship golf tournament at Wentworth, and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
Familiar Woodhouse also erects its familiar green-and-white wood-framed Shedding tents and aluminiumframed Clearspan tents. Both are trademarks registered to the company.
"For example, you have to make sure that there's nothing left on the ground that the deer might eat," says managing director, Tony Marsh.
He's a structural engineer who has worked all over the world, and bought the firm, now more than 120 years old, from the Woodhouse family in May 1995. "Before that I'd spent fiveand-a-half years working for the Northern Engineering Industries side of Rolls-Royce, as business development manager," he says, "and then finance director for the mining division.
"But Rolls-Royce was divesting itself of its mining operation—I handled the divesting— and then there was no suitable challenge for me," he explains. "So I ploughed my own fur row, and went looking either for a new job or a business to purchase. I was never hell-bent on running my own business, but had always been interested in acquiring one if the opportunity came along."
International engineering responsibilities, an MBA from the University of Chicago and two years working on the corporate finance side of SG Warburg before joining Rolls-Royce have all undoubtedly been of help. "The MBA was my transition from pure engineering," says Marsh.
Perhaps of equal assistance has been his family background. Marsh is from County Kildare in the Republic of Ireland, and his family has long been involved with horses and agriculture. "Without it I probably wouldn't have done what I did," he remarks.
Woodhouse ran Bedfords for many years, then moved to Mercedes-Benz 1617 tractive units hauling 30ft trailers and grossing at 24 tonnes. It had good service out of them, but gradually realised that it would be better off running 40ft trailers at 38 tonnes, so it switched to Mercedes 1831s.
By the early 1990s the fleet was ageing. Replacing all the trucks would have been expensive, especially as they and their trailers would have been idle during the winter: Woodhouse's work is seasonal, and its two major costs are transport and labour. So the firm elected to retain two 1831s—now two years old, and proving reliable—and brought in six Foden tractor units from a locally based haulage contractor.
The subcontractor is T Baden Hardstaff, which also supplies seven trailers, four Moffett Mounty trailer-mounted forklifts—Woodhouse owns three of its own—and maintains the Woodhouse Mercedes tractors alongside its own trucks in its Charnwood workshops. The Fodens are operated out of Ruddington during the busiest times of the year—spring, summer and autumn—and T Baden Hardstaff takes them back and switches them to other work during the off-season.
At one point Woodhouse owned 31 trailers. Now it has just one of its own, a 40ft triaxle, but it is increasingly favouring 45-footers with rear steer axles. As well as relying on Hardstaff, it pulls in other hauliers from around the country when things get really busy; in particular for jobs in Cornwall, Scotland and Ireland.
"In the seventies hauliers weren't so professional," says Marsh. "But things have improved immensely, and I'd rather outsource because I can buy a lot of Clearspan tents and grandstand seating—and make money out of them—for what it costs to buy a new truck. And T Baden Hardstaff's equipment and drivers are all performing to contract."
It also means that someone else is largely responsible for supplying truck drivers at a time of growing shortage. Woodhouse has had problems hiring in drivers, only for them either not to show up on time, or to prove unwilling to rope and sheet loads.
Almost all the trailers are flatbeds because Woodhouse's loads tend to be awkward and bulky. Bulk is far more of a problem than weight in practice the artics gross at 32 to 36 tonnes rather than 38 tonnes.
Marsh doesn't believe that reverting to running a largish in-house fleet and taking on spot-haulage work in the winter would make sense. It's not profitable enough, he argues, and you can't build up long-term relationships with customers.
The Mercedes clock up 60,000-70,000 miles a year, mainly between April and October, and average 9mpg. Like many other operators Marsh is unimpressed by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's latest diesel duty increase. Many of the contracts are tied up for three to five years, so it will take some time to recoup these additional fuel costs.
The Moffett Mountys have had an enormous impact since they were introduced in September 1995. Before they arrived loads were handballed on and off, although conventional forklifts were sometimes hired on-site, and still are. "Over the past two or three years we've put a great deal of effort into putting our hire equipment into units that are easily manageable by the Mounty," says Marsh.
Using the Mountys means employees are put at less risk of injury—less heavy lifting, and the need to clamber onto trailers—and they help ensure the Manual Handling Regulations are complied with.
If a show is being built up over two or three weeks, the first truck to arrive will bring a Mounty, and it will be left there. "Then we know that any trailer going to that job won't need one," Marsh explains.
Although the Mountys have improved turnround speed, a trailer can still take up to three hours to unload because items may have to be dropped off at several places around the site.
Here again the Mountys can help, because they can shuttle kit to exactly where it is needed. Woodhouse used to use agricultural trac tors and light trailers but the With a lot of shows concentrated into a tight time span from mid-May onwards, hire equipment often has to be dismantled quickly once one event has finished and taken to the next. Problems can arise when the weather is bad, and trucks and crews aren't allowed onto a site to break down a show for fear that they'll churn up the ground. Even if they are admitted, they may only be able to move out halfloads to limit the damage. That doesn't do much for operational efficiency.
"The weather had a bad effect on us last year, especially with the rain in June," Marsh recalls. "The Goodwood Festival of Speed had bad weather and for two days we couldn't get on to the grass to forklift the equipment up onto the lorries. At the same time we put 1,200 temporary stables up for the Royal Pageant of the Horse, and the event was cancelled because there was a foot-and-a-half of liquid mud around the arena."
Traffic congestion Woodhouse and its subcontractors are running more at night to avoid congestion. If equipment arrives late, Woodhouse crews are left standing around twiddling their thumbs; but if the trucks go out early, and get back to to base late afternoon, they can be reloaded for the next job.
A manual register has traditionally been used to keep track of a broad range of hire equipment, but Marsh has recently switched to a Windows-based software package called All-Hire. "We have entered all the components of our hire equipment, built them up into subassemblies, then into assemblies, and we can reserve them for each event,": says Marsh. "We can then schedule in build-up times, how long it's all going to be there, and the breakdown times.
"Next year we'll integrate it with our accounting system," he concludes. "We want it to become a dynamic tool—we're always striving to offer a more efficient service."
[a by Steve Banner FACTF1LE: LH WOODHOUSE BASED: Ruddington, Notts. CONTACT: Tony Marsh, managing director. FOUNDED: 1860s. FLEET: Two Mercedes-Benz 1831 tractive units. Six Fodens are on contract from local specialist haulier T Baden Hardstaff during the summer months. SPECIALITY CONTRACT: Delivering and erecting tents, grandstands, stabling and other equipment for events such as Highland shows, horse trials and golf tournaments.