O&A CONTINUED
Q. Might there not be a conflict between hire and sales - such as selling to other hirers? A. No. We won’t compete unfairly against anyone else and we don’t have any conflicts with other hirers or dealerships. We never intentionally undercut anyone if they are offering equipment they bought from us. It’s all about the relationships you have with other hirers.
Q. How do you track the performance of the business? A. Jason heads up sales, supported by our Marketing Manager Joe Flanagan, who was previously with Stihl. We have a salesman at each depot but sales aren’t broken down solely by area. A client in, say, Cardiff, might need equipment at other locations across our region, so we ultimately analyse everything in terms of customers. However, our computer system tells us what has been selling well, or not so well, and we try to understand why - not to criticise but to see if there is a particular factor affecting demand that we can address. Gary presents weekly forecast figures every Monday morning.
Monthly P&Ls are discussed by all four board directors. Quarterly performance is discussed with all managers and assistant managers, after work, which is normally followed by a hard-earned curry.
The Cardiff depot re-located to larger premises last year.
at 4.50pm on a Friday to deliver over 500 fence panels to an event in Oxfordshire after another supplier let their customer down. We responded and got it done. All depots open at 6:30am.
“Most of all,
Q. Tell us about the new Swansea depot. A. It is on a retail park in the city, which will make it visible to a huge variety of passers- by. Demand has grown organically, westward from Bridgend, and the new depot effectively completes our model. It makes us a true one-stop-shop across the region we serve. We’ll start with six personnel at Swansea and increase steadily to 15. We have also made a significant investment in cordless equipment at this location to gauge demand for this kind of product. Swansea is the last large piece of the jigsaw. It enables us to offer a complete service to our West Wales customers
have fun and make friends - business is so much easier then.”
Q. The breadth of Phoenix’s operation must call for very flexible management. A. We are at the right size to be very responsive. Pontypridd is our administrative base and is also the most central, forming a perfect hub, where Paul and Jason are both based, whilst Gary bases himself in Cwmbran with the accounts team. Pontypridd also provides a customer telephone support team, as well as telemarketing. While every location has a test-and-run facility, Pontypridd
undertakes central hire fleet repairs and it will operate from a new, dedicated unit next year. Central purchasing is based at Cwmbran, which also handles repairs and service of customers’ own equipment, which we keep separate.
Q. Your staff must be flexible, too. A. We have a great team. They’ll come in at 5am when we have an early delivery to make. And recently we had an urgent request
16
Q. What are our industry’s biggest challenges? A. Our main challenge is the recruitment and retention of excellent, passionate team members at all levels of the business. We fulfil this by recruiting from within and outside the industry, followed by excellent training and regular staff appraisals to understand our team’s aspirations and to help them work towards their life goals. Hire rates are always a challenge but modern technology allows us to fine-tune customer rates in line with their expectations and are further weighted by other considerations such as turnover and payment performance.
Q. What advice would you give to other hire executives? A. Genuinely care about your customers and staff, and have a strong desire to be Number 1 in your own market. But most of all, have fun and make friends - business is so much easier then.
Q. Any future plans? A. Our new website will shortly introduce
an e-commerce sales facility, and we’re creating a dedicated operation for this in Cwmbran. Customers will also be able to book training courses with us online. Our turnover was £6.7m in our last financial year and that could reach £10m in 2020 with the Swansea depot opening. We have other ventures planned, too, some possibly appearing within the next two years. So watch this space.
•
www.phoenix-hire-sales.co.uk
The new Swansea depot sporting the impressive Phoenix branding.
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