FEATURE
Tees
The
Factor
Fleet Factors won the Tees Business of the Year title at the inaugural Tees Business Awards . Peter Barron meets managing director Joe Hunter and his team to discover the company ’ s special ingredient …
A s he looks back on the history of the company his father founded almost 50 years ago , Joe Hunter doesn ’ t hesitate when asked to identify the key to its success .
“ Right from the beginning , it ’ s always been about our people – and having staff with that trusted Teesside work ethic ,” he says .
Joe has been managing director since 2010 , having earned his stripes with the business as a storeman and then a van driver .
Today , Fleet Factors , the newly-crowned Tees Business of the Year , has grown into one of the UK ’ s largest independent wholesalers for vehicle parts .
But while the company has become nationally recognised , it is Teesside that continues to shape its values .
“ Teesside people are hard-working and straightforward , and they ’ ve stood the business in good stead all the way through ,” says Joe .
As Joe talks with his fellow directors round the table in the boardroom , his father , Mike , who founded the business in 1975 , nods in agreement .
“ With Teesside people , you know what you are going to get – resilience , adaptability , and a strong work ethic engrained in them by the history of the area ,” he adds .
“ You know they ’ re going to get stuck in and get their hands dirty – but have fun at the same time .”
The first piece in Fleet Factors ’ Teesside jigsaw was a man called John Smith , who became Mike ’ s right-hand man when he launched the business at South Bank , on the outskirts of Middlesbrough .
PICTURES : GRAEME ROWATT
“ John was a Teesside man through and through , and it went from there ,” recalls Mike .
Mike grew up 150 miles from Teesside , in Cheshire . His father , Jim , was a nuclear physicist , who worked for ICI , and his mother , Gladys , worked in the Lancashire cotton mills .
Early signs of their son ’ s entrepreneurial spirit came when he was nine and made little boxes of lavender to sell in aid of the local church spire appeal in the village of Davenham .
Mike went on to work for engineering companies , making parts for motor vehicles , and he moved to Teesside in his late 20s to set up a distribution business for his employer , Cape Industries .
After two years , Mike was told to make redundancies among the staff who ’ d helped to build the business . Instead , he decided to leave and set up his own business , with just himself and John Smith initially focusing on supplying brake-linings for lorries . “ We were supplying fleets of vehicles , we were based at Cargo Fleet , and our aim was to be fleet of foot – so that ’ s where the name Fleet Factors came from ,” he explains .
Mike was an innovator . Fleet Factors was one of the first to install radios in vans to make communication easier and response times quicker .
From lorry brake-linings , the company added other vehicle parts to its portfolio and grew steadily .
By 1980 , it had seven staff and the payroll had increased to 44 within the next 10 years , by which time Mike had implemented his vision to develop the company from an IT perspective , giving the business a unique ordering system .
The voice of business in the Tees region | 27