Tim Whitehead, 58, who started the Birmingham freight forwarder FT Groupage 10 years ago, saw the business make really good progress - until its biggest customer went bust owing it £250,000.
The news came in 2005 while he was sat at the Savoy in London having lunch with among others, the Princess Royal, in her role as a supporter of the haulage industry." It was time to make some real decisions," he recalls. The firm switched banks to HBOS which "took security against our debtor book, gave us an overdraft and the allowed us to trade our way out of it, renegotiating payment terms of our main suppliers. We didn't lose a single customer. But it did take two and a half years hard work."
Now, with a £6 million turnover and 24 staff, the company is preparing to "batten down the hatches" for tough economic times ahead.' We're not seeing a downturn yet but we're getting ourselves ready said Whitehead.
"We've increased our sales force and the putting large expenditures on hold and become protecting our cash and go to sales basically. We're much more resilient now than we were before."
The Times - October 2008 |
