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CM discovers how L Lynch (Plant Hire and Haulage) went from being a small business to turning over £24m a year in three decades
Words: Roger Brown / Images: Nigel Spreadbury
L LYNCH (Plant Hire and Haulage) started out in 1980 doing jobs for utilities customers and roadbuilding irms from a small yard in Cricklewood.
So how has the family company, which initially ran a handful of machines, managed to expand to the point where it now turns over £24m a year and operates a leet of 137 vehicles?
Operations director Merrill Lynch (pictured) says key to the irm’s success has been its ability to retain a solid base of loyal customers in the utilities sector, as well as take advantage of major construction opportunities in the capital.
“In the early days we were involved just in utilities work, digging trenches in the road,” he tells CM in the boardroom at the irm’s modern ofices in Stanmore, north west London.
“However, we have grown steadily over the years, developed the haulage side of the business by moving more plant and machinery, and expanded the number of trucks and trailers.
“We are now involved in major civil engineering projects and work for blue chip clients such as Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Kier.” In the year to February 2010, L Lynch (Plant Hire and Haulage) posted a healthy pre-tax proit of £178,282 on a turnover of £24.1m. The company predicts revenues of £30m this year with a “much healthier proit margin” .
The business now employs 48 ofice staff, as well as 161 full-time drivers and ive mechanics.
Terminal five
Lynch adds: “We’ve beneited from working on the Wembley stadium rebuild and the Heathrow terminal ive project.
“There have been many types of jobs: a complex operation to remove a massive gantry bridge on the M1 near Luton, putting up a Christmas tree in Covent Garden and even transporting a 30ft model of Tutankhamun to Legoland.
“Currently, a big part of our work involves transporting materials for the Crossrail project and we also have seven trucks dedicated to the Olympic Park in Stratford.” L Lynch moved to the Stanmore site – formerly occupied by Expert Logistics – three years ago.
The company also has a depot in Northampton that manages an increasing amount of business outside the capital.
Workshop
Facilities at Stanmore include an impressive workshop for in-house maintenance, storage areas, a drivers’ de-briefing room and ofices.
Lynch says: “The new depot is larger than our old one. It has allowed us to provide a better service and given us more room to grow.
“We are proud of the fact that the company owns the premises, the trucks and trailers, as well as many items of plant.” As beits a company that works for the major construction giants, L Lynch is fastidious when it comes to employee safety. Staff are required to carry out detailed site inspections, route surveys and feasibility studies as a matter of routine for each job.
“Health and safety is a huge part of the business,” Lynch explains.
“Our clients demand high standards and have looked to us to develop the safety of our vehicles.
“We have made a decision to it reversing cameras to all the new trucks, as well as cameras inside the cab, which can lag up behaviour like harsh braking that needs extra training.” Due to the mix of utilities and heavy haulage work the irm does, L Lynch drivers have traditionally worked under both domestic and EU drivers’ hours rules.
In the past, this created some problems for the irm, and it was hauled before a trafic commissioner (TC) in 2005 for drivers’ hours reporting problems.
However, in March this year, Deputy DTC Miles Dorrington, granted L Lynch’s application to increase its O-licence authority to 150 vehicles and 16 trailers.
Dorrington commended the irm for having worked “exceptionally hard” to improve its drivers’ hours recording processes. Lynch adds: “To help us keep on top of the different domestic and EU regulations, we invested in a management system from Tru Tac, and employed a new transport compliance manager, David Drury, to run it.
“Tru Tac designed a complete package and it has been an absolutely brilliant system.” It’s clear from the hive of activity in the ofice that there is never a quiet moment. “The transport side of the business is taking off,” Lynch says.
Relationships
“It is all about quality of service and building really good relationships. Faceto-face contact with customers on site is really important, and we make sure we do this on the vast majority of sites we work at.” Lynch’s father Liam, who founded the business, is still the irm’s MD, while brother Rob works as sales director.
Lynch says the plan is to expand the company organically rather than through acquisitions.
He concludes: “For the future we want steady growth, ideally 10% to 20% year-on-year growth, but in a way that we do not overstretch ourselves.
“Over the years we have never let our customers down and because of this they have remained with us.
“We are continuing to pick up orders because people know what a good service we provide.” ■