As we surpass the halfway point of 2023 we can reflect and recognise that our commitment to servicing our customers with innovative and superior-quality products remains at the forefront of our business.
Our people have contributed to the success of Gray & Adams over the years. Our team are highly skilled and professional and care about our customers. We are thrilled to celebrate some long service career achievements in this edition, all of whom have added value over their years with us and we thank them for their loyalty and commitment. We celebrate Neil Gilland and Brian Fraser’s 25-year long-service awards on page 14, as well as celebrating James Duthie and Ian Senic’s 40 years at Gray & Adams on page 15. We also shine a spotlight on the Line Manager Assistant in the Brakes Squad, Dariusz Tendera, as we learn more about his role and responsibilities on page 20.
As always, at the heart of our business, is our loyal customers, many of whom have worked with us for decades. We have the pleasure of featuring our partnership with Turners of Soham on Page 17, Sykes Seafood on Page 9, Igloo on Page 5 and a case study from Tesco to reaffirm Gray & Adam’s superior quality of products that ensures longevity and a lifetime of value from investment on Page 16.
As we look back at what occurred in the first half of 2023, we reflect on events we attended. Read Andrew Brown’s thoughts on our attendance at the ITTHub event on page 6. You can also read about our role as a gold sponsor at Logistics UK Fleet Engineer Conference on page 7.
We also take a deeper look at part three of James Gray’s story, picking up the history of Gray & Adams from the early 2000s on pages 12 & 13.
In this edition, we celebrate the success of investing heavily in our staff at Gray & Adams to ensure continuous improvement. As on of Fraserburgh’s largest local employers, we are proud to have developed many young engineers and skilled tradespersons over the years and are committed to supporting young people through our apprenticeship scheme, which you can read more about on page 8. This year so far, we have also made investments in upgrading our Doncaster facilities, which you can read about on Page 4, as well as carrying out car and commercial repairs centre upgrades which you can learn about on page 19. These facility investments ensure our working environment fosters a culture of positivity and puts the well-being of our people first. We also highlight the importance of building quality and ensuring longevity through speaking to Quality Manager David Smith, HSE Manager Tony Jones and Training Manager Andrew Cooper on page 18.
Gray & Adams is entering the second half of 2023 as a strong business despite pressures from supply chains across the globe and we would like to extend our gratitude to our staff, customers and suppliers who have made this possible. Thank you for your unwavering commitment to Gray & Adams and would like to wish you all the best for the remainder of 2023.
and Peter Gray Joint Managing Directors
As with our products, Gray & Adams understands the importance of building in quality and ensuring longevity, and this also extends to our working environment.
The team at Doncaster have recently invested £50,000 on upgrades to the facilities to ensure our working environment fosters a culture of positivity and puts the wellbeing of our people first. In order to do this, we have ensured we have the best-in-class facilities that makes the workdays of our team as comfortable as possible. Some of the changes that have been made include a new roof on the repairs shed, which is lighter in weight and lets in more natural light and a ground pit that will make the process of repairing cables underneath trailers more efficient, ergonomic, and safer for our specialists.
We have also invested in energy efficient, automatic doors on the externals which enhances the safety of the facilities as well as making our processes more efficient by automating manual processes that take up time and energy, allowing our team to fully concentrate on building the quality product Gray & Adams is renowned for.
In addition to the upgrades in the workshops, we have made further changes to the office and canteen. By upgrading the furniture and surroundings to a sleeker and more modern look, we have created an environment that puts the wellbeing of our people first. We believe in creating a pleasant, and positive workplace that makes people excited to be a part of Gray & Adams.
Gray & Adams is always on the lookout for great people to join us, if you are interested in working with a company that puts the wellbeing of our team and customer care first, then get in touch.
Over the 65 years that Gray & Adams has been in business, we have developed strong customer relationships that have progressed into long-term partnerships. We are proud to work with some of the biggest names in distribution to support their success, however, it is also a key objective that we explore new partnerships with businesses our solutions can add value to.
Our most recent customer that Gray & Adams have welcomed into the long list of valued businesses we work with is Igloo Thermo Logistics. Igloo offer refrigerated courier services to customers all over the UK and have a track record for exceptional service to businesses such as hotels, restaurants, and schools. On the back of their most recent fleet addition, two multi temp double-deck trailers from Gray & Adams, we spoke with Operations Director Leigh Ogley, about their latest investment.
Leigh tells us,
“This jour ney with Gray & Adams has been completely new to us as not only was this our first experience of purchasing a bespoke trailer, but we also have never had double decks in our business. Our normal process of developing our fleet would be that we would reach out to various leasing companies such as Dawson Group but we identified the need for double decks in our business and we don’t traditionally see a lot of them in the rental market, so we decided we needed to take the plunge into purchasing our own asset.”
He adds,
“Igloo offer a next-day delivery service across chilled and frozen goods as our key customer value proposition, so any tactic that drives efficiency across our business is going to be welcomed. This was the main reason that we explored the option of purchasing two multi-temperature double decks. They have been implemented in our business to trunk products between our depots and the large size of the trailer has allowed us to create greater productivity in our operations. The fact that we can fit almost double the amount of product within one journey is a huge plus for Igloo, the learning curve has been training for operators to create a new loading procedure as we typically carry several types of products simultaneously, so weight distribution has been a consideration with the added height.”
Gray & Adams believe that a strong commitment to customer service has been part of what has made our business so successful. The team are often praised for their responsiveness and support during the process, as well as the expert handling of aftersales care. On this Leigh tells us,
“Working with Gray & Adams has been a great experience. As we are new to the purchase process, we had never had our own asset specially built but Gray & Adams didn’t overcomplicate things and it was smooth sailing. We didn’t feel that the process was more laborious than working with rental companies which made us feel comfortable in our investment’’.
“ Working with Gray & Adams has been a great experience.”
“ We believe in creating a pleasant, and positive workplace that makes people excited to be a part of Gray & Adams.”
The Gray & Adams name is synonymous with innovation so we were delighted to be a gold sponsor for the 2023 Fleet Engineer conference at the British Motor Museum.
The focus of the Fleet Engineer conference this year was on the developments in brakes, steering and suspension; addressing the fundamentals of today’s issues; looking at current and future developments (aligned to ADAS and autonomy); and exploring what these enhancements will mean to the maintenance regime for operators.
Phil Lloyd, Logistics UK’s Head of Engineering Policy, chairman of the conference comments,
“Keeping up to date with the developments of moder n vehicle technology is becoming increasingly challenging for commercial vehicle engineers – and there is more to come as technology continues to advance at a rapid rate. Logistics UK’s Fleet Engineer event is designed to provide operators and their maintenance providers with all the information they need to keep modern fleets compliant, as well as sharing insight into the future of vehicle design and autonomous driving. The event is a must-attend for anyone with responsibility for specifying commercial vehicles, ensuring roadworthiness, compliance and/or maintaining vehicles”.
For the second year running, Gray & Adams exhibited at ITT Hub at the Farnborough International Conference Centre in May. With the industry having had a long break from trade shows during the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been beneficial to reach out to industry contacts and meet familiar and new faces in person.
Gray & Adams place huge strategic importance on building strong personal relationships with customers, suppliers, and other industry stakeholders, so to be invited to exhibit at the Cold Chain Hub, hosted by TCS&D was a valued experience.
To discuss the event, we caught up with Andrew Brown, who was on stand to represent our business throughout the show. He shares,
“When reflecting on the show after our 2022 attendance, we discussed that strategically, the ITT Hub show was an important event for Gray & Adams due to the shared ethos of innovation and sustainability playing a significant role on how the industry will continue to move forward. After the 2023 show, we believe that this will continue to be the case due to attendees we had the opportunity to speak with”.
He tells us,
“The visitors to the Gray & Adams stand were key players within our customer base as well as industry stakeholders so we were delighted to catch up with them and show some of the innovations within our product range. On stand this year we were delighted to have our Gray & Adams branded double deck demonstrator with lifting floor and our latest rigid body that we have developed for our valued customer, Castell Howell Foods”
“As with last year, the road to net-zero was a topic of conversation at the event. Gray & Adams, as an industry leader is fully invested in making our industry more sustainable and we are actively looking to partner with suppliers and customers with a similar mindset to move forward on this journey. Our team is vocal on the fact that despite innovation from the industry, there has been some blockers to implementing electric vehicles fully into the cold chain sector. The feasibility of implementation is something that we are actively lobbying to change on behalf our customers, and the World. ITT Hub provides a platform for us to discuss and hear other perspectives on where businesses are in this journey and what is preventing full adoption of sustainable fuel sources.”
The one-day conference included expert insight from manufacturers, industry leaders and government, and included sessions by Traffic Commissioner Kevin Rooney, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
There were sessions on:
- Vehicle safety in an autonomous world
- Maintenance – a traffic commissioner’s view
- Developments in brakes, steering and suspension aligned to ADAS and autonomy
- The art of braking
- Maintaining in-service standards
- Maintaining traction
- Who’s accountable when it all goes wrong?
- Maintaining compliance – DVSA view
Ian Smith IEng, FSOE, FIRTE, FIMI, AAE, Group Engineering Manager at Gray & Adams said of the event,
“Gray and Adams welcomed the opportunity to support the Logistics UK Fleet Engineer Conference as it also provides an opportunity for us to remain aligned with and understand the real-time issues faced by our customers in road transport operations. Whilst G&A are at the forefront of including modern vehicle technology and processes in our designs and applications, it is also important to be able to keep abreast of upcoming legislative changes and concerns that may affect our products.”
Gray & Adams place huge importance on nurturing emerging talent and attracting key skills into the industry to continue the success of our long-standing business. We are committed to creating opportunities for people and encouraging people to fulfil their potential, in turn minimising the risk of potential industry skill gaps
To do this, Gray & Adams offer modern-day apprenticeships at their Fraserburgh HQ in conjunction with North East Scotland College. This allows the apprentice the opportunity to achieve an industry-recognised qualification whilst also gaining hands-on experience through working. Gray & Adams Apprenticeship Programme offers a wide range of modern-day apprenticeships across a number of disciplines:
- Engineering – Mechanical, Electrical and Hydraulic Disciplines
- Welding / Fabrication
- Spray Painting – Commercial
- Automotive Vehicle Accident Repair – Spray Painting / Panel Beating
- Draughtsperson
- Maintenance Technicians
The Gray & Adams Apprenticeship Programme offers opportunities to individuals who are looking to develop their skills within a working environment. As we are looking for the best talent to continue our industry-leading status, they do not put an upper age limit on their apprenticeship programme, it is open to anyone over the age of 16, living in the UK and not in full-time education.
Gray & Adams has a longstanding commitment to the apprenticeship programme with several former apprentices succeeding in working their way into specialist or senior positions. This is a testament to the company’s ethos of developing and supporting their people, throughout their career journey. There is a huge focus on continuous development and support within Gray & Adams, with around 55 young people currently in the apprenticeship scheme. The development of apprentices is a large part of Gray & Adam’s commitment to the next generation of industry talent. There is a large industry skills gap and Gray & Adams Apprenticeship Programme looks to resolve this by closing the skills gap, and ensuring longevity of the business. These particular skills provide opportunities to local young people without them having to move away from friends and family.
Gray & Adams recently had five young people complete their Modern Apprenticeships successfully and were presented with completion certificates at the awards event in the Altens campus in Aberdeen. From everyone at Gray & Adams, congratulations Hubert Prosinski, Alexander Stephen, Dylan Mair, Aaron Weaver, and Muir Esslemont.
If you are interested in submitting an enquiry, or speculative application to the programme, please email careers@gray-adams.com, using subject title, apprenticeship programme, with a CV and covering letter.
Whilst Sykes Seafood may be a newer customer to Gray & Adams, is it certainly not new to market. Boasting an impressive 160 years in business, the team looked to Gray & Adams to enhance their fleet with their latest purchase of a mix of 6 single and double deck trailers.
Following the successful delivery of this order, we speak to Sykes Seafood Senior Group Transport Manager, Alan Livingston for his comments on the build quality and the new relationship between the two businesses.
He shares,
“We approached Gray & Adams as they are known in the market for their superior build quality and the double deck trailers were a specific requirement we had at the time. The reason that we were interested in purchasing the single and double deck trailers is that, as an ever-growing business, we are looking to be time and cost efficient whilst delivering service excellence to our customers. We believed that the addition of these trailers to our fleet can support this objective due to the extra load capacity it offers.”
Alan also adds,
“As well as the immediate need for the double deck trailers, we were also interested in working with Gray & Adams due to their reputation for delivering a quality product. The team were also able to include some additional specifications such as building a more durable shell which would be able to manage some of the tougher journeys that our drivers undertake, therefore preserving the lifecycle of the asset. We also asked if a full camera system could be fitted internally for the safety of our drivers and for load security reasons. We carry high-value stock in the seafood market, so these additional measures are important to keep our team and customers safe whilst out on the road. The feedback from our drivers has been brilliant so far, they think the trailers look the part, making their work experience that bit better.”
When discussing plans for the future, Alan also adds,
“I would work with the team at Gray & Adams again. I found them to be highly professional and communicative and they were able to meet the expected delivery time which is getting more and more challenging in this current market. We purchased the double decks with diesel-powered Thermo King fridges as they run efficiently, but we may look at alternative power sources in the future.”
“ We were also interested in working with Gray & Adams due to their reputation for delivering a quality product.”
“ Looking for the best talent to continue our industry-leading status.”
Following on from the spring 2023 edition (Issue 20), we pick up the history of Gray & Adams from the early 2000’s.
Further development of the former CPT buildings started again in 2000 when the third vacant building had the front area adapted to meet our storage requirements for raw materials and parts, primarily for use in chassis manufacture. The remainder of the building was set up to accept a foam injection plant specifically manufactured for our needs by Simmipianti in Italy. In preparation for its arrival, the subfloor base of the building had to be excavated to a depth of 1.5 metres to facilitate the installation of the new machines. An extension to the building was also created in order to accommodate the associated plant equipment, pumps, and bulk storage tanks for the liquid polyurethane foam. The plant comprised of a large press for the manufacture of refrigerated vehicle roofs and a smaller press located in an adjoining area for the manufacture of front bulkheads and rear doors.
During the course of 2002 one of the UK’s longest established transport companies, Gibb’s Transport, ceased trading. As the site was next to ours, we purchased it for future expansion. The decision was taken to dismantle their existing workshop and erect a new building which would accommodate 14 tables for panel manufacturing, effectively doubling our capabilities. We also incorporated robotic glue dispensing machines which were manufactured by Pro Hydro in Finland for our specific requirements. Once the panels were produced they would need to be trimmed to meet our customer requirements and as such a multi-functional saw was purchased from CMS Italy and modified to suit our needs. We also retained some existing machinery, primarily for the pre assembly preparation of the trailer floors.
When the new panel hall was eventually completed in 2005 we were able to produce and supply an increased number of panels, however, after a very short time, the increased capacity meant operators were under more pressure, and as such consideration was given for operator safety in this busier environment. After much thought, James J Gray suggested introducing a night shift, not in every department, just in areas of high demand. This obviously required additional employees and a recruitment programme was started to fill both day and nightshift vacancies since some existing employees expressed an interest in working the nightshift. This proved to be useful in terms of passing on the skills required and after a period of adjustment the new shift pattern began to work as anticipated and even expanded to include other departments which continues to this day.
An additional part of the extension on the former Gibb site was to create a new motor vehicle accident repair facility as we had outgrown our existing one which we have been operating from since 1966. Part of the then new facility included various car ramps, additional jigs for body repairs and, what was then state of the art, spray booths.
In 2008 a decision was taken to create a new accident repair facility for trailers which was originally going to be sited in the former Bluebird coaches building. This had a 7 bay capacity which was extended by a further 3 bays and subdivided into areas for panel pre assembly, specialist equipment and jigs purchased from Josam in Sweden for rectification of accident damaged truck chassis cabs and trailer chassis. The final bay of the building had a spray booth installed which could accommodate the longest and highest trailers we manufacture. This operated as a repair facility for a period of time, however due to an increased demand for double deck trailers the decision was taken to relocate the trailer repair facility to other existing buildings on our site. This freed up a significant portion of the building which could now accommodate a dedicated double deck completion and final inspection area. Given that double decks sit closer to the ground, portable Stertil Koni hydraulic column lifts were purchased as it wouldn’t have been practical for operators to work on or inspect the underside of the vehicles. We then took a decision to purchase a fully compliant HGV brake tester which was sited at the north end of the completion and final inspection area allowing us to brake test all vehicles manufactured or repaired on the Fraserburgh site.
To refer back to the buildings where repairs had been relocated to, these were originally used for storage and the manufacturing of smaller parts and assemblies and therefore needed to be adapted in order to accommodate all vehicle types. The buildings were extended upwards and new roof cladding and composite panels were fitted alongside new full height roller doors. The adapted building contained 6 bays, one of which contained a full length inspection pit for easy access.
I commenced employment at Gray & Adams March 1998, having previously worked as a building surveyor with the local authority. I initially had a placement in the Sales Office in Fraserburgh but after a short period of time the company had completed the purchase of an engineering works across from the main factory, and that potentially was the start of me going back to utilising my building experience. Peter Gray was ultimately responsible for persuading me to join Gray & Adams way back then.
I have maintained relationships throughout my 25+ years, with all our major customers and key suppliers, including support for Doncaster, Dunfermline and Ireland, a role which to this day I still enjoy.
Engaging on a daily basis with James and Peter, has allowed me to achieve a wider knowledge within the group. The support I have received, and still receive, from the joint Managing Directors both on a work and personal level, is second to none.
During the earlier years, I spent a large amount of my time with Jim Gray Snr, and Lewis Gray Snr. Both vastly knowledgeable on the day to day running of the company, and this was invaluable and beneficial to my progression.
Throughout my career it is satisfying to see the younger generation progress within the company, without the younger staff members having the opportunity to enjoy their time being at Gray & Adams, the future would be very bleak indeed.
Having involvement with customer orders, and seeing these through to the final delivery process is good for morale.
Having been asked, what is the best thing about working for the company? My simple answer to that question is, it is never a thought to come to work on any given day.
I started with Gray & Adams in the Drawing Office as a CAD Engineer on 13th April 1998. Ruary Campbell introduced me to the Office systems and processes and working under him, I was initially looking after the database/library drawings – adding new variants for the different builds and specifications as well as keeping the drawings up to date.
Starting in 1999, I worked with Lewis B Gray and Bob Reid to develop a refrigerated lifting floor trailer taking all the ideas and drawing them to get the project to the build stage. We built two demonstrators in early 2000 and they went into service for customers trials as soon as they were ready. I have been heavily involved in these trailers since then as we worked on the design to get where we are today. These have proved to be extremely popular with our customers and are huge part of our build numbers. In those early years I also worked a lot with Lewis and Bob on our low floor double decks with large wheelboxes and independent suspension, which we still build today.
In the early 2000s, I was involved in the early days of automation in the factory after the introduction of new CNC machines – plasma, laser and router all of which are still programmed in the Drawing Office, the Foam Injection machine also came on line at around the same and again I worked with Lewis B Gray putting his ideas on to paper for our foam injected panels to get them to the production stage.
I became the Assistant Drawing Office Manager in May 2004. It was April 2007 that I took on the role of the Drawing Office Manager that I still am today, at the same time we moved into a newly completed bright open plan office where we still are today.
The site in Fraserburgh is so much bigger now than when I started, it was only on this side of the main road and we had other businesses that we worked around but they have all gone now and we have expanded into where they were.
The Chassis Shop was next door to us but is now a much bigger building across the road and that building is now the Twin Frame Completion. We now have two buildings that were built solely for our lifting floor/double deck trailers.
I think the company has only gone from strength to stronger since James and Peter took over as joint MDs and that is including the Covid years, where I think the Directors did a magnificent job keeping everyone safe and the factory going.
No two days are ever the same with such a wide variety of projects that we cover, the time has always flown in everyday and I still cannot believe it is 25 years, it really has been a privilege to work for so many years for such a superb company and in my home town just a few minutes walk from my house. I am not alone with many years of service and I think it says a lot about the company that so many people have been here a long time not least in my Office which I have a great team.
IAN SENICI started at Gray & Adams on 26th May 1983 and have been here for the last 40 years. I first started in the assembly department building the refrigerated trailers. I have been in various roles, I moved from the assembly department to the door department, then to the trailer department before finishing up in my current role as a manufacturing operative where I drive the forklift collecting waste materials for recycling, which I have been doing for the last 7 years.
My career highlight at Gray & Adams is seeing the company expand over the years, from starting as a car body shop to becoming one of the largest employers in town, it’s been incredible to watch. I have had some mentors across my time at Gray & Adams with older generations teaching me skills. While I haven’t mentored anyone myself, I have always helped in other departments. My experience in various roles has meant that over the years I have been able to turn my hand at a number of roles and help put where required.
Gray & Adams has been a great local company for me to work for. There is a happy workforce with lots of camaraderie and everyone getting on. I have really enjoyed my 40 years here.
JAMES DUTHIE
I first started at Gray & Adams in May of 1983. I was due to start the week that Aberdeen were playing in Gothenburg but I was going to the game so I was able to postpone my start date to the following week.
I started my career at Gray & Adams in the assembly department putting cappings on vans, and most of my 40 years within that area of the business, before moving across to road to the foamfill department.
A career highlight for me is seeing the company grow and expand. My gaffer Kenny Burnett was always keen and helpful, sorting out problems and so on, he helped me out in the long term, so I really appreciated his mentorship.
Gray and Adams has been a really good firm to work for, it has been great for getting the work and keeping everyone in a job. I have really enjoyed seeing the business expand over my 40 years there.
“ I have really enjoyed seeing the business expand over my 40 years there.”
With this in mind, we regularly report when a customer has ordered a new trailer or rigid body from us, but we have taken this opportunity to visit valued customer and household name, Tesco, to find out how a 12-year-old ferry specification double deck has served their business before the asset heads into a well-earned retirement.
A LIFETIME OF VALUE
The ferry spec double deck trailer was purchased by Tesco for their Livingston depot from Gray & Adams and delivered on 8th March 2011. It was purchased to serve the route from Livingston up to the Shetland and surrounding islands which is an 8-hour journey on choppy waters and strong winds. Tesco looked to Gray & Adams to deliver a durable and robust double deck that could handle this journey with additional specifications that ensured that limited damage would be endured during the crossing.
Gray & Adams is industry renowned for the superior quality of products that ensure longevity and a lifetime of value from investment. Whilst the majority of our customers have a regular repurchase cycle to keep their fleet fresh, our trailers are built to last, and with proper care and maintenance provided by our aftercare team, we can claim that the durability of our product allows the trailers to run like new for up to 12-15 years.
Having been in business since 1957, Gray & Adams has been in the fortunate position of witnessing significant changes and innovations in the industry, as well as seeing our customer’s businesses grow. Due to this, it is not often that we work with businesses that have been running for longer than us, but we are always delighted to support industry stalwarts.
One such business is Turners of Soham, who have been operating since 1930 when brothers Wallace and Frank Turner bought their first vehicle and began delivering loads from their father’s farm in Soham, Cambridgeshire. Since then. Turners of Soham has gone from strength to strength, growing to being one of the largest privately owned transport companies in the UK.
When discussing the most recent order, Tim shares
“Back in November 2022, we approached Gray & Adams as we were looking to place an order for 40 single deck trailers fitted with Thermo King fully electric fridges. We also required the trailers to be fitted with BPW axles which is our standard axle that we use across the business to increase efficiency in repairs and servicing and reduce the number of spare parts we have in stock.”
He adds,
“We understood that with the electric fridge, the initial investment would be higher, and the payload would be slightly reduced but the benefits outweigh this as we would be reducing the CO2 output which is becoming increasingly even more important to us and our customers. The sustainability commitments are something which we are more and more aware that we need to uphold as a business as part of operating responsibly and we are seeing that many tenders do have environmental considerations.”
“ Gray & Adams offer a quality product which could withstand the challenging journey we needed the trailer for.”
As well as the trailer being built to the double deck height specifications, the trailer also included a galvanised chassis to ensure extra durability for the tough journey as well as additional lashing rings for enhanced security during the crossing. With driver safety and comfort always being a consideration for Tesco, Gray & Adams included ground access rails for easier access whilst managing the electrical and air connections. As well as this, we also included an automatic park break which activates whilst the air connection is removed.
Whilst sustainable technology has moved on in the last twelve years, the trailer is diesel operated but still had electric capabilities. Sustainable and environmental options are something that Tesco is passionate about including in its newer fleet due to the business’s commitment to zero emissions by 2035.
Fleet Engineering Manager at Tesco, Cliff Smith told us, “Tesco own all our fleet, so it is important that each purchase is a quality investment, and we don’t have to prematurely replace. Gray & Adams offer a quality product which could withstand the challenging journey we needed the trailer for. This has allowed us to free up capital to invest in other areas of the fleet as we knew the trailer would be built to last. As well as the quality, we enjoy working with Gray & Adams as they provide solutions to challenges and work collaboratively with our team to overcome any blockers.”
Turners of Soham has had a similar journey to growth as Gray & Adams, both starting as a family business and then progressing to being a nationwide employer over the many decades. As such, Gray & Adams connects with the values of Turners and has developed a strong relationship as a trusted partner in their operations.
To discuss this relationship, and the most recent orders placed by Turners of Soham, we speak with Tim King, Group Fleet Engineer. Tim tells us,
“I’ve been working with Turners of Soham for around 22 years and as such, I’ve known the team at Gray & Adams for a long time. The size of our fleet is fairly significant and out of the 4,000 trailers that we run, 750 of them are refrigerated. The majority of which are G&A. The reason that we work with the team at Gray & Adams is we have that personal relationship with them where the lines of communication remain open and if we have to change something with the spec, they are open to exploring different options with us. We’ve not that same experience with other competitors where the product feels really off the shelf.”
Further adding to his comments on the strength of relationship, Tim mentions that they are looking to order further trailers from Gray & Adams,
“Gray & Adams are renowned for unrivalled quality. The robustness of the trailer body is something we really value as it ensures that the asset hold its value and integrity for longer periods. We do have a yearly buying cycle to keep our fleet fresh and up to date and we have already been in touch with the team to order a further 40 trailers for October taking into account the longer length trailers which have now been approved for use.”
For over 65 years, Gray & Adam’s expert teams have been the key to our success. We spoke to Gray & Adam’s Quality Manager David Smith, HSE Manager Tony Jones and Training Manager Andrew Cooper to explore the importance of Quality, HSE & Training to the overall growth and success of Gray & Adams.
Gray & Adams is renowned for quality and ensures that quality is built into solutions at every stage of the manufacturing process. Gray & Adams founder, the late Jim Gray Snr, always said that “Quality can’t be added on, it has to be built in”.
To this day, this motto is always at the forefront of our product and starts right at the beginning of the initial enquiry and design process. We work closely with the customer to ensure they get exactly what they want, this makes us very unique to this industry.
We pride ourselves on quality at each stage of the build. Our accreditation to ISO 9001:2015 gives the customers the assurance that their vehicle will be delivered to their exact specification, and to the high standard of quality that they have come to expect. It doesn’t stop there as we then give the customer the required support to ensure that they are comfortable with operating and maintaining the product that we supply to them.
“Quality is more important than quantity” is a term often used across all disciplines of our Quality Management System.
David Smith Group Quality ManagerAs a commitment to the wellbeing of our employees, Gray & Adams is deeply dedicated to health & safety excellence and as such, requires the contribution of the whole workforce to be truly effective.
Policies and procedures are a fundamental part of building a strong safety culture within the workplace. Gray & Adams is no different in this as we have a wide range of policies and procedures covering how to do a job safely. However, without the rest of the equation above they are just well-intentioned documents.
Along with investing in our facilities, Gray & Adams invest in ensuring the best people join our team. People are the key to our success, and it is our duty to provide a safe working environment by educating our staff on policies and procedures that will allow them to carry out their work safely.
We will never prevent every incident but if we all take the time to think about safety and follow the rules at work the chances are we will all go home to our families in the same condition we came to work in.
By reporting all incidents and any near-miss occurrences we reduce the risk of injuring our colleagues, affecting production, and maintaining the great reputation Gray & Adams already has throughout the industry.
Tony Jones Group HSE manager TRAININGTraining is important to our business as it represents a good opportunity for employees to grow their knowledge base and improve their job skills to provide greater career satisfaction and a more productive workplace. Employees who are well-trained are more likely to produce higher-quality work the first time around, thereby minimizing mistakes.
We use a variety of different training methods:
- On-the-job training
- Instructor-led training
- Product knowledge training
Apprentices are an important part of Gray & Adams as they are the future of the business, if we don’t have apprentices learning from our existing employees where will we be in years to come?
The Head Office team at Gray & Adams operates with around 55 apprentices and recruits 12 - 15 new modern-day apprentices every year in various disciplines. We work closely with NESCOL which our apprentices attend on a day-release basis.
Andrew Cooper Training Manager
As Gray & Adams started its long life as a car body shop repairer in Fraserburgh, the business has always been passionate about ensuring its original roots remain an important part of the business and service offering.
As such, the team at Gray & Adams has been working behind the scenes to update the facilities and equipment for the department and is now delighted to announce that we are open and ready for business.
The previous car body shop was 780 square meters and we have now extended the new facility to 1500 square meters to further enhance our capabilities.
The other equipment that has been added includes two new car paint booths, one commercial paint booth, a chassis straightening jig which can be used on trailers up to 14m long as well as other vehicles, a Hunter four wheel alignment machine and an advanced driver assistance calibration tool.
As well as the additions of the equipment, we have also ensured that we have a knowledgeable team ready to assist our customers. In the body and car repair shop, we currently have a team of 19 as well as an apprentice painter and an apprentice panel beater.
As with all our teams in Gray & Adams, we are fortunate to have a number of long serving members of staff that work with us and they attended the official opening of the car and commercial repair centre. These include Kenny Urquart, who is celebrating 30 years’ service, John Marshall, celebrating 47 years’ service, Peter Gray who is celebrating 50 years after starting with the business in 1973 and finally, Darren Hanton, the current car shop manager who has been with the team 15 years after starting in 2008.
We were also delighted to welcome former employees to see the upgraded facilities, including our ex-car shop manager, Bill May who worked with us from 1962 -2001(39 years’ service) and Derek Watt who worked for Gray & Adams from 1967 -2009 (42 years’ service).
With the official opening of the upgrades, Peter Gray shares, “We are delighted to announce the opening of the new state of the art facility and we are looking forward to welcoming our valued customers from members of the public to our existing commercial contracts. We have long serving members of staff who are ready to put their knowledge and expertise to use and we also have a couple of apprentices within the team whose development will futureproof this side of the business for years to come.”
At Gray & Adams, we are proud of our people, and we work hard to attract and retain talented individuals. As a result, we have a number of valued team members who have worked for the business for many years.
In this edition, we speak to Dariusz Tendera who has been with Gray & Adams for 17 years and works in the double deck completion department in Fraserburgh.
Q1: What is your role at Gray & Adams and tell me about your day-to-day responsibilities
I am the Line Manager Assistant in the Brake Squad. My role is to have the final check-up on the vans and do a programme test to check that there are no faults and the vehicle is working properly. Once I have signed this off, then it can go onto the road safely.
Q2: What brought you to Gray & Adams?
I had been working in Poland in a Volvo service station and applied for the Gray & Adams job on a website. Gray & Adams had a contractor helping them to find employees from Poland
Q3: What has been your biggest achievement while working for Gray & Adams?
I really enjoy it when I can find something wrong with a trailer, an issue no one has seen before, and being able to report it and find a solution.
Q4: If you could do someone else’s job (at Gray & Adams) for the day, whose would it be and why?
I would enjoy being a director, like James Gray. Being able to keep an eye on all the different departments and people would be really interesting, and getting an overall view on what’s going on in the company.
What is the best thing about working for Gray & Adams?
I love that everyone is approachable and willing to help when needed. I like that Gray & Adams provide us with training, as well as organising training from the suppliers. Without the suppliers providing us with the technical training on their specific product we wouldn’t be able to progress in our department. I enjoy it when I find problems with trailers, as I like the challenge and liaising with the technical office to find solutions.
“ I like the challenge and liaising with the technical office to find solutions.”