Content area
Full text
A diverse customer base can help keep the work flowing - even in tough times. And that is precisely the thinking behind Banks Bros. Transport's efforts to diversify its customer offerings
One Of the keys to maintaining a healthy workflow for your business is to get your selling boots on and bring in some new customers - but remember to keep cherishing your existing ones.
If 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers, you could be over-exposed to events outside of your control. If you transport goods or raw materials in bulk, the economic health of global commodity markets could almost certainly affect your customers' customers and, ultimately, your own business.
At the moment, hard-pressed operators are being attacked from several directions at once. Rising operational costs together with pressure on cash flow and shrinking margins caused by customers tightening their belts, mean there has not been a more difficult time to be a haulier in the past 50 years.
However, where hauliers have pro-actively taken steps to counter the effects of the recession on their business, they are finding that they can keep the work flowing. One such business is Banks Bros. Transport. The company, which was incorporated 27 years ago in July 1982, is part of The Banks Group, whose other divisions include mining, construction, waste management and land development companies. Banks Bros. Transport is based at West Comhrth in Co. Durham and operates 16 trucks on bulk tipping and low loader work.
In the beginning
The Banks Group was founded in March 1976 by three brothers - Harry, Joe and Graham Banks - and has always been involved in the mining and supply of coal in the north-east. In fact, Banks Bros. Transport supplies the haulage for the coal mined at the firm's new surface mine at Shotton near Cramlington in Northumberland. The coal from there is used by the 420-megawatt power station that provides electricity for the aluminium smelter owned by Rio Tinto Alean at Lynemouth. Although it is one of the smallest in the UK and is stated to be one of the most thermally efficient, the smelter consumes 1.2 million tonnes oi coal a year.
When the Prime Minister,...