EQUIPMENT
T H WHITE AN INTERVIEW WITH GROUNDCARE DIVISION DIRECTOR TIM LANE T H White’s groundcare division, with four main sites stretching from the midlands to right across the south coast, celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2014. One year on, Director Tim Lane discusses the branch’s customer management and trading evolution. How was the company formed and who owns the business? Founder Thomas Henry White formed T H White in 1832 and it originally traded as an ironmonger. With its roots firmly in agricultural engineering the Group began to diversify its interests during the eighties to form the business today which employs over 500 full time staff and turns over in excess of £120m. The Group now has interests in lorry cranes, vehicles, agricultural engineering, energy, fire and security, specialist engineering projects, construction and professional groundcare machinery. We started supplying commercial grasscare machinery in 1989 when we took on the Ransomes range and then expanded the division’s presence across four South West depots. We have provided machinery to a far-reaching and growing portfolio of county councils over the past 25 years. Whilst the Scott family are the majority shareholders, a large proportion of the business is owned by the staff which ensures those working in the company are engaged in its ongoing success.
www.prolandscapermagazine.com
T H White.indd 93
Which brands do you deal with and who holds the longest serving contract? Our view is, if we have good long-term relationships with our suppliers we will be able to best serve our customers needs for the long term. In addition to being one of the largest Ransomes Jacobsen dealers, we are also dealers for Wiedenmann and New Holland. We are also main dealers for Amazone, Wessex, Ferris and Wright, Greentek and Greenmech chippers. We also run an Ifor Williams trailer business from Reading serving the Thames Valley region and the south coast. What responsibilities does your job involve? I am a graduate agricultural engineer and joined the company 16 years ago in my year out from Cranfield University in Bedford. After I graduated David Scott, the Managing Director at the time, offered me a job and I started off by selling equipment on the south coast. My career has seen me work in all departments within groundcare including time spent working in other divisions. Five years ago I became a Director which has given me an insight across the whole business; but my day to day job is running groundcare. What type of customer prefers to trade with used equipment? We get a number of enquiries from large private users through our website. Often this is because we have listed ex-hire, or ex-demo equipment on the listings which offer our customers substantial savings over new equipment. Some of these opportunities come from running a large dedicated demonstration and hire fleet – in particular hire where we regularly sell off the machinery to keep the hire fleet modern and up to date. For example, we have a local authority contract in Gloucester which hires brand new mowers from us every other year. We maintain them, offer servicing and then take them back after the hire period then restore and sell them on.
Do you currently manage any contracts with local authorities? We look after some London boroughs and South West areas leading up to the Midlands. We are heavily focused on local authorities. They are very particular about the companies they deal with, they look for dealerships to be financially sound and have a track record supplying to local authorities. We’ve been in business a long time and having a strong balance sheet gives us credibility. Our challenge is to change smaller contractors’ perceptions as some assume we’re too expensive. We want them to feel we value them as they add up to a big chunk of our business. How has the trade in grasscare machinery been doing in 2015? We were all concerned about the impact budget cuts would have on frontline services including grass cutting, but the knock-on effect for machinery replacement has not been as bad as anticipated. In our experience local authorities are still investing to keep up with innovation around lower vibration, reducing engine emissions and further improving productivity and operator experience. CONTACT T H White Ltd Nursteed Road, Devizes, Wiltshire SN10 3EA Tel: 01380 722381 Web: www.thwhitegrasscare.co.uk
Pro Landscaper / September 2015 93
19/08/2015 14:45