COMPANY PROFILE
Bow down to Boughton
IT’S not exactly ‘mission impossible’ to find a business in the waste sector which was left reeling by the greatest financial crisis to hit the UK since the Great Depression.
A decade on from the 2008 collapse – which triggered the beginning of the end for countless businesses and a battle to survive for others – its impact is still a tender spot for many.
Some simply didn’t make it through. For others, however, there came opportunities and a chance to build, restructure, shift focus and even to emerge stronger than ever.
It is a tale of mixed fortunes. And if ever a business encapsulates the rollercoaster ride that resulted from the most chaotic economic time of the modern era, it is probably Wolverhampton-based Boughton Engineering.
Even Britain’s longest-established designer and manufacturer of hook loaders, skip loaders and close coupled trailers, with its solid foundations, quality of products, good customer base and strong reputation, was feeling the force of the financial storm.
By SANDRA DICK
By early 2011, Reynolds Boughton Limited and Reynolds Boughton (Devon) Limited - collectively known as the Boughton Group - with roots stretching back to 1897 and heralded for its cutting- edge design, technology and innovation, was suddenly staggering towards the unthinkable.
“It was too late for alarm bells ringing. They had already been and gone,” said Richard Skan, Managing Director of Skan Group, which stepped in just as the going got really tough.
“It was very unfortunate. I had tried to expand by buying Trio Skip and Hooks of Gloucester – a move that would treble the business. That was three years before the recession hit - then the banks started tumbling and the commercial vehicle market slumped by 78%. It was difficult to withstand the challenges.
“So that was an opportunity for us at Skan Group,” he added. “We knew of Reynolds Boughton, we knew the senior management team and the owners, and it was a very good fit for our business.”
While businesses up and down the land crumbled under the weight of the recession, the Boughton name was about to be reborn.
Richard Skan, Group Managing Director (left) with Group Sales and Marketing Director, Steve Price (right)
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Its acquisition by Skan Group didn’t just give the renamed Boughton Engineering a
new lease of life: today the business is growing at an impressive rate of
knots and looking to a bright future of new markets, new products and fresh opportunities, perhaps even abroad.
The turnaround to its dynamic fresh start is largely thanks to Richard’s entrepreneurial skills and willingness to invest, combined with the engineering firm’s exceptional reputation for its hook loaders that merge strength, reliability, straight-forward design and proven performance, along with Boughton’s second-to-none approach to customer service.
The business is in really
good nick – it’s back where it’s supposed to be.
“Even when the recession hit and the business was in trouble, customers stayed because the Boughton name is so good,” said Steve Price, the company’s Group Sales and Marketing Director.
“The Skan family has invested a lot to make this business work,” he added. “They have invested in the premises, the people and the support structure.
“It’s gone from employing 40 people at the recession, to 170 now.
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