Keeping up with the Joneses
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Like other hauliers, Alan R Jones has battled to survive the recession – but survive it did, and it has emerged leaner and fitter and ready for growth
Words: David Harris / Images: Nigel Spreadbury
THERE ARE many reasons for people setting up in business on their own, but irritation at working for others must be fairly near the top of the list. That was the case for Alan Jones, who founded the Newport haulier Alan R Jones 40 years ago this month.
Alan comes from a farming family whose land was compulsorily purchased by the forerunner of British Steel; as a result he got himself a job on its site. It didn’t go well, as his son and MD Ian Jones remembers. “In the end he got demoralised and took the decision to go into business on his own,” he says.
Alan bought a Bedford TK and set himself up as a self-employed driver in general haulage. Things proceeded steadily, but after a couple of years he swapped his TK for a 16-tonne M-reg Leyland Super Comet and undertook work hauling parts for a Chepstow bridgemaker. By the early 80s the leet had expanded to ive vehicles, and Alan’s two sons, Peter and Ian, had joined the family irm. In the late 80s, when Alan died, Ian recalls that the irm was not in a very sound inancial state. So he, his brother and their mother sat down to decide where to take the business next.
A decisive decade
The result was that Ian came off the road to run the company ofice full-time and establish a irm bedrock for a healthy business. At the time, the company was operating seven vehicles.
The decision for Ian to stay in the ofice whipping up more work was, he says, more a case of picking at straws than anything else, although brother Peter did have marginally more experience on the road than he did. The two have shared the key roles in the company ever since, with Peter illing the role of chairman.
A few years after he moved into the ofice, as a result of what he calls “a chance phone call” , Ian irst heard about Palletline, which was to become a signiicant factor in Alan R Jones’ subsequent growth. “It came about because we were struggling to ind a reliable subcontractor to take on extra work. I asked another haulier and he suggested Palletline.”
That call led to the irm joining the pallet network in 1994, and by 2001 it was operating 13 vehicles; today it has 25 vehicles, 35 staff and a 20,000ft2 warehouse.
Moving home
The growth Palletline stimulated also meant the irm had to move premises. It had operated from near the family home just outside Newport, but for the past 10 years its HQ has been at Queensway Meadows Industrial Estate.
Alan R Jones’ spread of business includes the Palletline work, general haulage, a dry bulk powder tanker service and warehousing, all of which has helped it battle through the latest recession.
And a battle it was. At one point staff took a voluntary wage cut that was the equivalent of ive hours’ pay a week in an effort to avoid job losses. This helped the irm survive, but didn’t stop redundancies. Two members of staff were laid off but have since returned to the irm.
The reasons the recession hit hard will be familiar to many operators. Rising fuel costs clearly hurt, as did a slump in a groupage service to London operated by the irm. This was partly dealt with by switching vehicles that had worked on that route to Palletline work. The inancial consequences of the recession were also predictable. Revenue dipped 10%, which made the 15% cost cutting all the more important.
Despite this situation, the haulier managed to come out of the recession aiming for growth. “We must make a plan for growth in order to survive,” says Ian.
More staff have been taken on, including a marketing specialist and a new operations manager, a role which leaves Ian with more time to chase new work. The company has been winning more contract haulage work, including carrying for Enersys, the industrial battery manufacturer.
New investments on the way
He adds: “We’re planning to invest more in technology and people to drive the brand on. Staying still isn’t an option.” The type of technology he is referring to includes a recently updated trafic system and a web portal that allows the company and its customers to get live real-time information on where loads are and when they have been delivered. Ian sees the two chief areas for growth as Palletline and in more contracts, such as the one with Enersys.
Overall, Alan R Jones is one of those companies that has emerged from the recession with a clearer sense of what it must do to survive in the future.
Ian adds: “The last three years have deinitely been the hardest we have experienced, but we have come out the other end. Going into the recession we had a bit of fat, which helped us ride it out, but we are now a lot leaner. The aim now is to expand the company.”
There is no doubt Alan R Jones has put itself in a position to do the best it can. If the recession did any good at all for hauliers, it might be that those who survived it are leaner, itter and ready for business in the 21st century. ■
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