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Into the big league
Page 70
Page 71
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Hardworking family-run lveco dealership Kerr & Smith is targeting fleet sales to take the business to the next level.
Kevin Swallow reports.
Rural dealerships like Kerr & Smith, based at Currinock, south-west Scotland, generally struggle to land major fleet deals. Instead they are left to pick up the residue of aftersales, repair and maintenance.The problem, says joint managing director Jim Smith. is that decision-makers are based elsewhere. But that hasn't stopped him winning a series of high-profile deals: Glasgow City Council is ordering 12-tonners and upwards; Wiseman Dairies has ordered 40 Dailys; tanker and waste disposal contractor Billy Bowie also took 40 Ivecos.
Heavy trucks are key and the Kerr & Smith demo fleet reflects this. A 6x4Trakker tractor led to waste disposal sales, as have a pair of 6x2 Stralises — one with tipping gear. "Billy Bowie has been very loyal to us and I want to be able to support him, and I want Iveco to support him," says Smith.
It's support that gave the company its first break. In 1975 joint MD Bill Kerr, then an LGV technician, and Smith, a National Coal Board engineer, were repairing vehicles from home in the evenings.The pair decided to go into business over a fish supper after they had rebuilt an engine for a Salvation Army minibus.
There was steady work on offer from local hauliers who needed weekend maintenance but the big break came when the local council wanted two engines swapped between refuse collection vehicles.
Smith recalls: "They said 'we'll give it you end of Friday, when can we have it back?'.! said Monday. 'Aye, what Monday?' was the reply— I said next Monday moming."Typically it would have taken a month."We got it back Monday morning." he adds. "We had to.They spread the word throughout the councils.
"Before we knew it we were repairing all their dust carts, tractors, trailers, grass cutters, and support vehicles."
In 1980 Smith spotted a General Motors advert for Bedford dealers.A franchise dev lopment director was in the area and visited Kerr & Smith; it duly won a franchise and Bedford's departure in 1987 came as a shock: was in tears when! got the phone call that Bedford was withdrawing from the UK."
Bedford was sold to AWD but the writing was on the wall."AWD was in the process of taking over but we were desperate to keep our employees so we took the Vauxhall franchise," he says.
When AWD folded in 1992 Kerr & Smith built up the ear bustness but Iveco Ford became a possibility and in 1995 the firm became a satellite service centre for 61asgow-basedWylies.
1998Wylies wanted to concentrate on its Ford franchise, offering a chance for Kerr & Smith to take on Iveco."We sat down and agreed terms for taking on the franchise. Iveco were very helpful and we rented Wylies' premises for 18 months," he says.
That, says Smith, was the easy bit— when Kerr & Smith was awarded a larger Vauxhall franchise covering Ayr but Cumnock a month later it was all hands to the pumps.
The company planned to invest f1.5m in the Glasgow Iveco franchise but neither funding nor planning permission were straightforward. It applied fora grant but was turned down as it was a service enterprise rather than manufacturing. Smith harangued; Glasgow District Council (GDC) looked again: an appraisal recommended a £440,000 grant to support the creation ofjobs; GDC offered £240,000. Builders got on with it and the site was completed just in time.
Smith says:"The first 18 months based at Wylies', business grew but moving had a huge impact. It seemed much harder work to stay still. It took two years to recover the business in Glasgow.
Today the heavy truck market is the focus for taking the business forward."The Stralis has come on in leaps and bounds — it's on the shopping list for operators, and it's helping us seriously get into the heavy truck business again, which is establishing our future with aftersales work," he says.