Content area
Full text
As with many firms close to Heathrow, Saints Transport's operations are closely linked to the airfreight industry. Roger Brown talks to Piers Carroll about the business's recent rise in fortunes
For visitors to Saints Transport, the noise and sight of low-level aircraft are a constant presence. But the roar of jet engines is a continual reminder that the company - based in Colnbrook, near Heathrow in Middlesex - has grown into one of the largest airfreight hauliers in the country.
The business was founded in 1973 by current chairman Martin Carroll and Steve Beeches, chief executive. Kevin Beeches also plays a vital role as joint chief executive. Piers Carroll, also managing director and son of Martin, represents the next generation of the firm.
He's dearly at ease and appears as happy to talk about the latest Formula One gossip as the firm's most recent deal. He also constantly engages in friendly banter with his staffbut beneath the jovial exterior, if s dear he has inherited his father's hard-headed and professional approach to the haulage industry.
Carroll emphasises that Saints is "very much a family business" and "the customer is king", from the small-scale occasional caller to large global corporations such as British Airways.
He says: The perception of us is that we are only after the big fish. But that is not really the case. Each job is equally important to us, whatever the size of the customer's business. There is constant pressure. If s all about presentation, and our fleet's livery makes us high profile. We are a very tightly run ship with a keen sense of purpose and always endeavouring to do more things for the same customers."
Its head office, Halo House, is on an industrial estate populated mainly by aviation-related businesses. Saints has 210 trucks, 150 trailers and around 375 staff spread across five locations - two depots at Heathrow, plus others in Manchester, Glasgow and Wales. Saints moves goods for a range of aviation clients, and has contracts to transport air freight at Heathrow for firms including BA and DHL.
Security
The company, which believes the options it offers customers are practically endless, carries out much of...