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Profile: TP Hire All in a Dey’s work Group Hire Director Richard Dey is busy ensuring that builders merchant Travis Perkins gets its act together in tool hire and becomes a force to be reckoned with. Robert Aplin reports from Northampton. Travis Perkins is one of the best-known builders merchants in the UK. In 2005, it achieved turnover of £2.64 billion and a pre-tax profit of £206.7m. The Group comprises over 750 builders merchants’ outlets trading under its own name, supplying what it describes as ‘trade professionals and self-builders’. Travis Perkins also owns Keyline, which operates a further 75 branches for heavy building and construction materials, and DIY and home improvement retailer, Wickes, which operates from over 170 stores, having been acquired in February 2005. Travis Perkins’ hire operation, which currently trades from 166 of the merchants’ outlets, is ranked No.8 in Catherine Stratton’s latest Tool Hire Top Ten with a turnover of £33.2m, based on its 2005 accounts. Of these outlets, 15 are within Keyline, with Wickes accounting for a further eight. The balance is all housed within Travis Perkins branches. My own personal perception of this TP Hire was that it offered reasonable coverage from the Midlands southwards offering a general range of tools for hire. However, it always seemed disjointed as its five separate regions each did their own thing, with no apparent central control. TP Hire languished in the lower region of successive Tool Hire Top Ten studies without any real focus or strategy. This could well be about to change following the appointment of popular hire executive Richard Dey as Group Hire Director. Richard has been in tool hire since 1980, when he joined Harford Engineering in Norwich in 1980. Having then worked for IPH, the tool hire arm of Ilford Plant Hire, he joined Jewson Tool Hire in 1990, helping to build its East Anglia network to 22 outlets. In 1996, Richard was appointed Branch Manager at A-Plant’s Norwich outlet and, within 18 months, became Trading Director. By
1998,
he
was
back
with
Jewson
as
Operations
Director
for
the
North
of
England,
which,
apparently,
encompassed
everywhere
north
of
the
M25.
Richard
lasted
two
years
there,
before
joining “Serious about tool hire” Richard Dey was attracted to Travis Perkins because, “as many people have commented in recent years, if a merchant ever gets its act together in hire, it will be a force to be reckoned with.” He is adamant that “Travis Perkins is serious about tool hire. The Group serves 250,000 ‘live’ accounts and our main hire focus is to make more Travis Perkins customers aware of what we offer in terms of hire. We want to be the customer’s first choice, or first alternative choice, when it comes to hire. We need to convince customers that when they need equipment, they should phone TP. “Previously,
TP
Hire
only
focused
on
customers
coming
through
the
door.
It
was
geared
to
the
‘collect’
customer
and
was
not
serving
‘nomadic’
customers,
that
is,
those
who
did
not
visit
a
branch.
As part of this, Richard Dey has also established Hire Direct, which is opening up hire to the whole TP customer base. “Our ‘nomadic’ customers can purchase materials from one central Travis Perkins point whilst working away from their base. Until now, there hasn’t been a national facility to phone one number for all their hire requirements. Hire Direct is also being extended to include other equipment that is not within our portfolio.” Core range for best return On
the
subject
of
equipment
portfolio,
Richard
Dey
concedes,
“our
equipment
profile
has
been
too
wide.
Purchases
were
made
regionally
that
did
not
fit
the
profile
and
we
were
left
with
kit
that Travis Perkins’ biggest commitment to date to improve its depth of equipment is the decision to purchase up to 500 JCB 800kg and 1.5 tonne micro and mini excavators in the next two years, half of which will be delivered by the end of May this year. The hire operation has selected these sized machines because they can be towed behind a Transit or similar vehicle. Richard has also established a new structure “to service customers’ in a professional manner with high performance, quality kit.” Last October Steve Day was appointed Operations Director. He had previously spent 14 years with A-Plant, most recently as London Operations Director. His role is to help set the hire standards in branches and improve customer service locally. In addition, Malcolm Rendell, formerly Midlands Regional Hire Manager, has been appointed as Group Fleet Manager. This is a new national role that encompasses all aspects of fleet management from purchase to disposal. New central workshops One of the key building blocks of Richard Dey’s new strategy for TP Hire is the establishment of new central workshops in a separate facility in Northampton. “We have products that we can’t get repaired quickly enough and we must get better utilisation out of the equipment we already operate, so the new central workshop is crucial. Within a week of a machine going ‘under repair’, it will be collected from the branch and sent to Northampton. At the same time, a replacement machine will be delivered to that branch to maintain its earning capability and ensure customer satisfaction. “The workshops will identify how much equipment to repair and send back to the branch and how much to dispose of for cash. They will help us to reduce downtime, turn equipment around quicker and make each asset work harder.” The new central workshop is the central stocking facility for new products and will additionally be used as a training facility. Richard Dey’s objective is to double TP Hire’s turnover within three years. In this period he aims to open 60-80 branches, although he believes that, allowing for Travis Perkins’ organic growth, this figure could rise to 100 outlets across the three brands within the three year period. The first 18 hire outlets to open within Travis Perkins branches have now been confirmed and they stretch from Hartlepool across to Morecambe and down to the south coast. In determining those sites that could accommodate a hire activity, Richard Dey initially evaluated a list of 100 locations and then reduced it to 40. During September last year, he visited each one of these outlets in order to determine its feasibility. “To make it happen, there must be a total buy-in from the merchant business to add a hire operation. When we open a new one, the first target is to achieve turnover of £10,000/month. Each hire activity comprises a hire manager, who reports to the merchant manager, and a driver/fitter. The merchant branch supports the hire operation in the form of administration and holiday support. There is also trained back-up staff in each location. The overall target is for hire to achieve 10% of each merchant branch’s turnover, although this depends on the mix of merchant product.” One year on from his appointment, Richard Dey states “TP Group gave us 2006 to understand where we are and to plan for where we want to be. We will do it right first time. We now have the structure for growth in place, with most of the right people in the right positions. My role is to educate and support the business and get Travis Perkins’ builders merchant people to understand what we are trying to achieve in hire. We must encourage the hire mentality throughout the Group. Hire will become a core range product of Travis Perkins and the long term aim is for hire to be represented within each Group store.” • Executive Hire News › Archives › March 2007 › Profile: TP Hire › All in a Dey's work
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