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COMPANY NEWS
Direct Tyre Management:
NRG Merger Offers Growth Opportunities
It is now a year since Steve Richardson merged his Blackpool based tyre management company DTM with Riverside Truck Rental to form NRG Fleet Services Ltd and, speaking from the Group’s impressive, newly occupied head offices in Skelmersdale, he professes himself to be delighted with the result.
Says Richardson; “The reason for the merger was that Direct Tyre Management was being challenged
1,200 vehicles from depots in Widnes, Basildon, Northampton, Heathrow, Barrow-in-Furness, Colchester, Braintree, Solihull, Stratford-upon-Avon, Coventry, Hackney and Glasgow. Particularly fast growing, the company focuses on waste handling trucks, large plant, commercial vehicles etc. and is particularly strong in the waste sector. RTR provides fleet management, truck rental and contract hire services, but has, in
Steve Richardson
by the customer to offer a composite solution to fleet management. Customers were expecting more from us. As it happened, DTM and Riverside Truck Rental were a natural fit and the merger has allowed us to offer a full solution to our customer base, as well as offering a plethora of cross-selling opportunities. This year DTM will achieve double digit growth from new customers. The merger has allowed us to develop greater strength to manage customer assets and has most definitely opened the door to bigger opportunities.”
The company with which DTM has merged, Riverside Truck Rental, supplies vehicles and plant on a long term basis to private sector companies, central and local government, operating a total of
recent times, expanded its expertise by following a strategy of recruiting highly qualified service technicians and adding service vans.
Direct Tyre Management, meanwhile, is a tyre management specialist offering a portfolio of tyre contract solutions, ranging from independent audits through to complete tyre management , including authorisation. The company does not employ fitting staff but does operate a 24-hour breakdown service, using a network of independent fitting specialists but handled through the company’s own sales and service function housed at the Skelmersdale head office. DTM also has access to a full range of retreads through Richardson’s own retreading factor y, Direct Tyre Sales, which is located in Wigan. In total DTM now claims
to be managing 600,000 running wheels throughout the country. Since the merger, the new group has gone through a comprehensive integration process, with back-up functions such as sales, customer service and personnel being amalgamated in Skelmersdale. There is also a separate property company and an acquisitions department. The aim, now integration has been completed, is to offer a complete solution to commercial vehicle fleets, a move, which is clearly paying dividends, attracting new business from major players. For example, on the day the magazine visited the company’s headquarters, the Group were completing the first
maintenance sector, Direct Tyre Management, in particular, is already looking at several areas of development, which Richardson says will become apparent within the coming months. Firstly, the company is looking to strengthen its network in two key geographical areas, details of which will emerge in due course.
Secondly, the company has now finalised a new composite retread solution, which enables DTM to offer both hot and cold retreads (previously only pre-cure retreads were available). The new mould cure tyre, called Treadmaster, will initially only be available for the waste sector, but will be expanded
Some of the retreads produced by Direct Tyre Sales
DTM’s new head office in Skelmersdale
day of a new contract with removals company Pickfords, who have outsourced all their fleet management requirements to the Group.
Having achieved a position where the Group now employs 200 people and can anticipate a turnover in the region of £55 million, the Group is determined not to stand still.
Apart from the fact that the Group as a whole is looking to make acquisitions in the truck
into other key sizes.
Lastly, DTM is also looking to become the only company that will be able to offer tyre servicing vans on a spot rental , offering complete service vehicles including ever ything except the tools. This service, says Richardson, will be ready for launch by the end of March with an initial fleet of six Mercedes Sprinter vans.
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