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This month, Miles Brignall focuses on a company that has made its name providing a strong regional service Gregory Distribution.
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To seasoned truck watchers regularly cruising the UK motorways, this company will need no introduction. Gregory Distribution has succeeded in developing one of the most eye-catching liveries in the business —who would have thought brown could have such a big impact?
The fact that this West Country firm—its head office is in North Tawton, Devon—is so well recognised throughout the country is testament to its steady growth over the last century. Today, it is primarily known as the largest distributor to the whole of the West Country. It carries a mixture of goods in a variety of for
mats, and employs more than L000 people. It runs in excess of 400 trucks and turned over close to f6om last year.
History
Gregory is another of those family firms that can trace its roots way back, to when its founder, Archibald John Gregory, bought a horse and cart and began hauling coal from the railway station to the local wool factory. Over the years, the company has built up a strong and steadily growing operating base, with its roots firmly in the rural agricultural market. However, it was in the late eighties and nineties that the real explosion in size happened, under its then managing director John Gregory, and it was he that largely created the company we see today.
The key year was 1993--a year which saw a change of name from AJ Gregory 8c. Son to Gregory Distribution, recognising the changing nature of the company's core business". It was also the beginning of the period I 993-8; a time that most observers will look back on as the most significant in its history.
The company brought the trading activities of Palletline for Avon, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall into the Gregory portfolio and thereby increased the company's activities within the shared-user market. It started collecting milk, added two further depots, and in 1996 broke the born turnover barrier for the first time. In October 2001, Gregory purchased 22-truck Wiltshire haulier Amesbury Transport and thereby added another location in the West Country. It also took over the milk contract from Hayton Coulthard, which added a further 15 vehicles to its fleet.
The operation
Today, the company is a pretty good example of a consciously diversified business. It is split into three business units—transport, which includes tninking and groupage activities, and accounts for 45% of turnover; contracts, which comprises its milk operations and dedicated distribution contracts, and accounts for 30% of turnover; and the rest (25%) is made up of warehousing and radial distribution, including the Palletline operations.
Its customer base is predominantly in food, drinks, and consumer goods—both raw materials and finished products. Its product list includes raw and longlife milk, confectionery for Cadbury's and Mars, and drinks for CocaCola and Gerber Foods. It moves consumer goods—TVs for Toshiba and flat-pack kitchens for Nexfor. It handles a whopping 7oo pallets a day for the Palletline network, making it one of the biggest inputters to the system.
It has four main distribution centres throughout the West Country: its Head Office in North Tawton; Cullompton on the M5 in Devon; Keynsham near Bath; and Amesbury in Wiltshire, thanks to its acquisition of Amesbury Transport last year.
It stores around 6 o,c)tpc. pallets which range from temperature. controlled, chilled and frozen products including maturing cheese, to imported, canned and dried goods. Interestingly, its work is entirely domestic, although it does hand on some European work for onward delivery to subbies.
Mk fleet
One of the less well-known things about Gregory is the size of its milk fleet. Out of its total fleet of 400, 130 are milk tankers, and this has played a significant part in the company's growth.
"It wasn't by chance that we developed and diversified into the ex-farm milk market sector. Agriculture is a significant part of West Country life and as such has a big interest in the dairy industry," says Gregory's managing director Andy Walker.
In 1994, we recognised that the deregulation of milk and the formation of Milk Marque as an independent co-operative presented a big opportunity for us to use our skills, gained over many years in the distribution industry, and to transfer it into farm collection work.
"In 1995, we successfully tendered for two local depots, to which we added a further three locations the following year, and we now operate from eight locations throughout the West Country."
Today, the company operates milk collection contracts at seven of MilkLink's depots, as well as providing an exclusive ex-farm milk collection service for Glanbia's Taw Valley Creamery. It also operates a significant milk transhipment operation based at Cullompton.
Management ethos
One of the interesting aspects of this company is that it has a decentralised management structure. Each of the business units has a person in charge and they are given responsibility to run that division as they see fit without interference.
This was put in place by John Gregory (before he stepped aside in October 2002) and by the current MD Andy Walker. As a company, there appears to be a 'let's get on with it' ethos, and it has a reputation for being well managed.
Gregory clearly realised that if the company was to succeed in its new, larger structure, he would have to bring in non-family members—Walker, who is ex-Wincanton, has been with the company since 1993.
"We believe one of our core strengths is the fact that we are an independent, private business. This means that, in many respects, customers deal directly with the decision-makers; this enables swift decisions and commitment, and also means we can react to opportunities in a rapid and flexible way," he says.
For some reason, it is not one of the most press-friendly companies—you don't get the impression that having a good PR image is a big priority, although those who have visited its sites report they are very efficient and businesslike, and you'll not find much litter lying around.
Profits
John Gregory is on record as saying he found that the returns on offer to modern hauliers
are soul-destroying, and the company that bears his name still suffers from the poor returns that blight most of the industry. For the year to September 2002, the company reported a pre-tax profit of f2.5171 on a turnover of f6om. In 2001, the company made 12.9m. Walker says that those figures may be in-line with its competitors, but are not good enough for Gregory.
"How do we make this better? We work at operating smarter, both in the way we use our vehicles and driver resources, and by ensuring we strike the right balance between price and service with our customers," he says.
Unusually, Walker is not a man to dwell on the future. Asked where he saw the company in lc) years' time, he merely pointed out that he saw the company developing in areas "where we can secure acceptable profit margins". He is either hiding some deeper plan. or it's an example of the 'no-nonsense' approach that has guided the company well so far.