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Keeping it British
Page 48
Page 49
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Known for exporting trucks, East Yorkshire-based Britcom International is looking to enhance its presence in domestic markets through remarketing, engineering and bodywork
Words/ Images: Kevin Swallow It's been five years since Britcom International moved across Market Weighton to custom-built facilities on 14 acres. While export markets remained a focal point, development of its UK presence was also part of its strategy Adam Day, business development manager (purchasing & UK sales), says in the last five years the number of units sold into the UK has tripled. "Britcom plans to continue this sustained growth and expansion in the coming years and continue to search out new sales and marketing opportunities to help deliver this growth," he explains.
Euro-3 sales
Although much emphasis has been placed on operator requirement for used Euro-4/5 trucks, especially as a lot of people will leave it until the last minute, says Day, Britcom is still retailing relatively clean low mileage Euro-3.
"Because of where we are, a lot of customers don't require Euro-4. It's not easy to get desirable Euro-4 stock for the right money, mileage, and condition. There are a few high mileage Euro-4s kicking about, but their availability is not abundant.
"It's been like that for the past year, even the Euro-3 kit is not in large quantity, but we are able to get Euro-3 stock because of our relationships," he says. Britcom is selling between 12 and 15 used trucks into UK markets a month, and there is plenty of demand for stretching trucks to meet specific needs. "We want to increase the retail business and having the engineering and bodyshop offers a little bit of an edge.
"We have put a lot of effort into that, and the way we market Britcom as a high-quality operation, all that filters through to the UK retail market," he says. The company's purchase of 4.5 acres next door means the remarketing team will have more space at its disposal, and Day is looking at expanding its used trailer operation and light commercials to store, display and sell on the new site.
"Trailers, it's another option for us, and with our relationships with finance houses we can offer trailers from five to II-years-old — that is the kind of area we are looking at, to compliment the trucks sales," he says. • Britcom is starting to build for stock to meet used truck sectors that are low on volume and availability. Adam Day (pictured) says a typical stock vehicle would be taking a Euro-4 tractor unit, stretching it and putting a body on it, but concedes it is a big investment.
"At the minute, 26-tonne trucks are in short supply — it could be a good area for us in the next 12 months. Its value goes up £15,000-£20,000 [compared with a tractor unit].
"We plan to do one a month. With the changes to the London Low Emission Zone coming up [4 January 2012], there's going to be a bit of a surge in demand," he says.
BRITCOM INTERNATIONAL: THE FACTS
1981 Founded by the late Ray Unwin as a used truck exporter.
2001 Invested in dealership in Kenya with Renault Trucks, also MAN TopUsed dealer in Kenya.
2006 Moved to new 14-acre site, which has seven engineering bays, six service bays, three paint booths, shot blast bay, machine shop, 14 bay engineering and servicing shops.
Today 98 people employed, ships more than 1,400 trucks, plant and equipment each year, annual group turnover in excess of £30m.
ENGINEERING AND BODYSHOP
Britcom's engineering and bodyshop departments have actively sought third-party work in the past five years to become more sustainable rather than rely on in-house work with vehicles heading overseas.
Fran Johnson (right), bodyshop manager, joined Britcom in January 2007 at a time when the bodyshop and paint shop was almost totally dependent on internal sales work from the export business. Threequarters of its work was in-house, he says.
"We developed a specific strategy to target UK retail body and paintwork to decrease the dependency on internal sales work. Today, approximately 80% of bodyshop work is UK retail and 20% internal sales [mainly export].
"For the past 18 months, we have been very busy. The work varies from painting a decompression chamber for divers to a race car transporter. We have just finished a contract for 250 vehicles for an Ocado contract."
Price drives the bodyshop and paint markets, he says, and if the department had been a standalone, independent business it would have been a real struggle through the recession.
"With the backup of generating 25% of the work internally, we have been able to weather the storm, we haven't made any redundancies, we have kept staff busy and looked at markets we could target to gain work," he says.
Johnson says Britcom is looking at local authority work with refurbishment of gritters, and is also contemplating the waste management market. "It's not something we do a lot of at the moment, but we see it's an area of refurbishment with waste compactors and road sweepers," he says.
Brent Carmichael (left), the operations manager/engineering, says 75% of its engineering work is for the UK markets, with the rest done for export.
"The type of work that is done for the export market is mainly chassis conversions that would not be done for the UK market such as the installation of a 6x4 drive train and converting from air suspension on to mechanical suspension," he says.
The UK market has stagnated in recent years due to the recession, he says, with the collapse of certain markets, specifically the allied building trades. However, there are signs of recovery and growth in the chassis market. "There was a downturn in the plant market, but in recent weeks we have had our first enquiries for plant bodies for the first time in a year," he says.
As an engineering department, it concentrates on specific, tailored work rather than the run-of-the-mill. "We are doing 40 bodies for a steel-carrying customer, we do a lot for the caravan industry, and build stepframe extendable low-loaders.
"Britcom is known for its bodies, stretch and trailers," he says. "We also see a big future in used vehicle recycling."