Alex Turner meets STEVE GRANITE, managing director of Abbey Roadtanks, in Bootle

A FIRM which has nearly doubled its turnover in five years and more than doubled its profits in the last two is not one which appears to require major changes.

Abbey Roadtanks, the Bootle-based bulk food distribution company, appointed Steve Granite as managing director last August.

He joined the company straight from school 14 years ago as a management trainee and he is determined to continue his education, even though he is now in charge.

Granite, 30, has enjoyed a quick rise through the ranks since the company owners, Mark and Steve Lucy, went back to their old schools, All Saints in Kirkby, to get two trainees for a management training scheme.

He said: “I had the option of staying on at Sixth Form or doing the trainee scheme.

“What they wanted to do was take someone who was almost pure, didn’t have any expectations, so they could be moulded.

“They picked me and Paul Laverick, who is also still with the company.

“We worked in all aspects of the business. I went down the finance route and Paul went the way of operations.

“My traineeship was always in finance. The company put me through a finance course, then CIMA, and I became qualified as a management accountant in 2002.”

He became finance director in 2004 when Steve Lucy became managing director, before he transferred over to being Safety, Health, Environment and Quality (SHEQ) director last year.

Mark Lucy has always been operations director.

He said: “Steve is very project-focused. We have set him a number of targets, for example getting ISO14001, which we have just achieved.

“The next one is ISO18000 and ISO22000, so he is completely focused on his area of the business.

“My role is managing the overall business and its direction.”

Abbey Roadtanks transports the raw food ingredients – liquid chocolate, oils and syrups – to manufacturers, such as Burton’s Biscuits, like the liquid chocolate, the fats, the syrups.

It has more than 50% share in its three markets.

These raw products are based around three locations, the North-West, Hull and London.

But this is a result of major changes in the industry in little more than a decade.

“If you go back to when I first started, in the Liverpool area alone there were three oil producers.

“There are only three in the UK now, in Liverpool, London and Hull.

“We had a bit of luck being with the right companies.

“With the market contracting, the number of hauliers has also contracted. There were 15 food tanker companies in the UK – now there are only five.”

Granite has ambitions of changing Europe from a threat into an opportunity.

“We did get some competition from European hauliers in the early 2000s,” he said.

“They did take business, but within a 12-month period one was taken off the contract and we got it back, and the other firm withdrew from the UK entirely.

“In recent times, the euro has gone in our favour and we are now winning business off them.

“We are just starting some more European work. We used to do one load a week in and out of Europe, it could soon be 10-15 loads. About 5% of our turnover could come from Europe.”

That turnover has grown steadily in recent years, increasing by between £1.6m and £2.4m since 2005.

In the year to June, 2009, it made pre-tax profits of £808,000 on a turnover of £19m.

The board does not, however, expect growth to continue at its present rate, but expects profit margins to be maintained.

He said: “We have been under pressure, like everyone else, but we haven’t suffered majorly in the recession.”

The firm invested nearly £20,000 in a water recycling system for its truck wash, which has seen a 15% reduction in water usage and 15% reduction in the gas used to heat the water.

“From the environment side, we are finding that what we are originally seeing as investment and costly is financially good,” he said. “Environmental actions are all about cutting waste. That’s only one element of what we have done. There’s a 150-point action plan of actions we took.”

Granite is also looking at the opportunities to diversify, both geographically and into new markets, including powder transport, the dairy industry and refrigerated food transport.

“Burton’s will also be taking powder flour and sugar,” he said. “Why don’t we just extend our services? We have the network and the clients.

“At the moment, 95% of our business is in bulk liquids. I’d like that to be 60-40 in five years, with either dairy or bulk powders.

“It won’t be easy. The milk industry will be more difficult because it’s very regionalised.

“We have an excellent reputation in the food industry, which is very similar to the dairy industry, and we have a solid network. We are going in to add value to the businesses.”

While there is a lot of attention on future direction, at the same time there is an important drive on internal processes and improving everything the company does.

He said: “There’s a complete wind of change in the company. The whole idea of me becoming managing director was to take the company to the next level of professionalism.

“We have put a massive focus on the investment and that took us to following ISO14001 to make us review everything internally.

“Some people say it’s just a certificate, but you can see the way it changed the culture and the thinking.

“But we also wanted to be more socially aware. Our employees nominated MacMillan Cancer Care and Zoe’s Place, and we make regular financial contributions.

“We came up with the idea of them advertising on the dome end of the tanks, and we now have 15 on the road.”

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