Building a Lifelong Relationship –

Turners of Soham

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.

Customer Impact

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.

Quality

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 Manager