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5th December 1996
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Page 41, 5th December 1996 — NOT
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Heavy haulier Hallett Silberman celebrates its halfcentury this year, proud of its 75-truck multi-faceted operation, testimony to the initiative of a youth who came to Britain as an impoverished war refugee.

/n the summer of 1939, a 13-year-old Jewish boy called John Silbermann arrived in Britain, a refugee from Hitler's Germany. Ele was evacuated from London to Bedford once war was declared and spent those years with a kind-hearted British family.

Today, the family-owned group he founded in 1946 embraces haulage, machinery installation and removals, property interests and a graphic design house. But lie has never forgotten the people who took him in, "We used ni go there every Christmas when I was a boy, and he'd bring them a great big turkey," recalls his son David, now managing director of heavy hauliers Hallett Silbermann based at Welhain Green, Hatfield.

"Once he'd completed his education, he joined a local transport company," David continues. "But he fell out with them because the office doubled as a mess hut for the drivers and he couldn't get on with his work.

"After that he spent a month or two thinking about what he was going to do next. During that time a lot of his previous employer's customers started ringing him at home saying that they couldn't get any sense out of anybody since he had left, and wondering if he could arrange transport for them.

"It suddenly occurred to him that he could earn a living doing this, so he started up a clearing house. All he had was a little office over a shop in Aylmer Parade in North Finchley, London, a desk and a telephone."

David still has his father's job tickets for September and October 1946, and they make fascinating reading. Britain was being rebuilt after the war and many of the tickets involved construction companies. "What's remarkable to me is that we still work for many of the firms in here, 50 years later," says David, turning the neatly-handwritten pages.

Subcontractors

John soon realised that he couldn't rely entirely on subcontractors. He needed lorries of his own, which was where Torn Hallett came in. He was a subcontractor nearing retirement and John joined forces with him. He acquired some of Hallett's trucks and eventually the two firms amalgamated.

"His first proper transport depot was in Cricklewood in a place called Brent Terrace," says David. "It was opposite what is now Brent Cross Shopping Centre."

In the fifties and sixties the company blossomed. It acquired haulage businesses in Birmingham, Rotherham and London and moved from Cricklewood to Watford.

"What we acquired with them was freehold depots, and over the years we've developed quite a big property portfolio under the Statebrook banner," says David. The graphic design firm is Blueprint, and is run by David's brother Richard. Now retired, John wasn't slow to realise the importance of adding value to what his firm did.

"From day one we'd developed a reputation for carrying heavy-duty machinery, construction plant and other indivisible loads," says David. "But what would often happen was that we'd arrive at a customer's premises with, say, a great big boiler, and the chap would say, 'I want you to put this in my basement.'

"So we set up an offshoot called 1.Iallett Silbermann Engineers which eventually became Metroplant, our sister company."

It handles factory moves as well as machinery installation. "They provide the labour and we lay on the transport," David smiles.

In order to do so 20 flatbeds—rigicis and attics -equipped with 6 to 10-tonne capacity cranes are currently running in Hallett Silbermann colours.

The company next established a storage and distribution operation based at Feltham near Heathrow Airport, which John subsequently sold. The money was invested in even more property, giving what was fast becoming a successful clutch of firms a strong asset base. "We decided to set up a holding company to control our activities under the Brent Group banner," adds David.

By the late eighties, I lallett Silbermann had developed an international transport operation alongside its heavy haulage activities, and was snowed under with work Then the recession struck, "It hit us as early as the last quarter of 1989," David remembers. "We were still geared to the construction industry—we specialise in moving piling machines and ancillary equipment—and everything came to a grinding halt. Things only improved in autumn 1992."

The Silbermanns had to take radical action to ensure the transport fleet survived. "We slimmed it down to a much tighter, more focused and profitable business," says David.

"By that stage we had acquired a depot in the East Midlands, which we shut. We sold the Birmingham operation to a management buyout team and the South Yorkshire business to Vanguard Vehicle Services, our main competitor up there." Both Birmingham and South Yorkshire have signed licence agreements which allow them to trade as Hallett Silbermann.

"We've registered it as a trademark," says David, "It's almost like a franchise set-up, which I agree is a bit unusual in heavy haulage. But it works well and allows us to continue to present ourselves nationally."

All three concerns Hallett Silbermann still has its own fleet, now based at Welham Green near Hatfield in llertfordshire use the same livery and stationery. The agreement ensures that the licencees work to the same standards as Ifaffield does.

"And business is booming again," adds David. "We've bad three good years, although heavy haulage is not a desperately profitable activity on its own. There was a slight lull during the first five months of this year, but since early summer we've been extremely busy. A lot of it is driven by the improvement in house building."

Populated

Seventy-five trucks currently fly the Hallett Silbermann flag, with up to 25 running out of Hatfield. The fleet has been populated primarily by Volvos and Leyland Dafs, but the Mercedes badge started to appear earlier this year. "Mercedes has become more competitive in pricing terms and we're impressed with their approach to business," says David. "We've bought two 435bhp 2644S 6x1 heavy haulage tractor units and a pair of 381bhp 2538LS 6x2 tractors."

The heavy haulage trailers include Andovers and Nootebooms, with a capacity of up to 80 tonnes.

Hallett Silbermann is still involved in general European haulage and in hauling foodstuffs down to Andorra in particular. "A lot of British skiers go there. They often go self-catering, and they want their Weetabix and Marniite," he says. "The curtainsided trailers we use also come in handy for some of the transport work we do for the Ministry of Defence within the UK. We run to northern Spain and south-western France too, and to the rest of Europe on a piecemeal basis. Unfortunately we struggle to backload out of Spain, and sometimes have to wait until we're back in France."

Back in Britain, heavy hauliers have been embroiled in a major controversy over whether the police should charge for escorting loads. David would rather not have to pay, but says that whatever policy is eventually adopted must be a national one. A situation where different forces take different approaches would be unacceptable. "And the nationally-agreed tariff must be known in advance," he adds.

He is not in favour of private escorting but favours a sharp crackdown on cowboy hauliers shifting special types loads (usually plant) without notifying anybody, and using ramshackle vehicles.

Business will be brisk in 1997, he predicts. "The economy is strong at present, despite all the public gloom and doom, but 1 am concerned that the Government isn't spending enough on the infrastructure," he reflects. "We live on a small, heavily-populated island and traffic congestion is bound to get worse."

L--.1 by Steve Banner


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