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Boalloy's progress • it's been hinted that Merker had taken a share in Bogey. Not so, says
Page 17
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Gibb, but he quips: they want it they can have the whole bloody lot!"
The reality is that since buying Boalloy 10 years ago Gibb and Brown have turned the company into a tightly focused operation that paid off its venture capital backers, 31, within five years. "We wanted to be our own lords and masters," says Gibb. "That's why we cleared our debts so early with 3i—they got a good ride for their money!" However, 31 must have been impressed by the way things were going as it has retained a shareholding in the company.
Six years ago there were plans to float Boalloy on the stock market. but the
management team finally decided against it as the market was on the turn.
"We had spent 2400,000 to stop the bus. We'd incurred heavy marketing costs," says Gibb. "However, had it gone ahead I don't think we'd be here today!"
Over the past five years Gibb says Boalloy has "virtually had to re-invent
itself. We're much more forward thinking than we've ever been." In 2001./02 Boalloy's turnover hit £45m. Gibb predicts a slightly lower revenue of 142-43m for the current financial year, but with a better profit margin. "We've always been prudent... always kept in a tight rein. But we're also optimistic in our ventures."
One sector where Boalloy has been disappointed recently is rigid bodybuilding. Having built up significant "on-line" business with Leyland and Iveco Ford, supplying up to 2,500 rigid bodies a year. Gibb says the business became "very one-sided. For years we had been squeezed on price." And he warns: "It could be a tough winter for bodybuilders in general, not only trailers. Our ambition hasn't diminished—only the prices on rigids have totally collapsed."