Welcome to the third edition of the Ballyvesey newsletter

Throughout the year, we will be sending you email newsletters, introducing you to the companies within the Ballyvesey Group. We hope you find them informative, and that it gives you an insight into what each of our businesses offer, and how they could potentially support you. We are also starting to feature other news such as recent success stories, accreditations, and other news. If you have anything you would like to feature, please contact Matthew Wilkinson.

Transport Division:
Montgomery Transport
Montgomery Distribution

Montgomery Freight Management
Montgomery TankServices 
Major Freight Services
MTG Customs

Montgomery Distribution

HTC was one of the UK’s first DAF Franchise holders which Ballyvesey then purchased in 2007 in order to invest and grow through its own performance and also through acquisition of other DAF dealers.

HTC now has busy depots operating day and night and cover Oxford, Reading, Hemel Hempstead, Dunstable, Heathrow, Park Royal, Croydon and Belvedere.  These areas are amongst the busiest in the UK with thousands of DAFs in operation and major motorways covering the area, meaning that the 24-hour DAF Aid trucks and technicians are always busy!

Like many manufacturers, the DAF trucks have constantly evolved and now include a wide range of award-winning Tractor units, Rigids and Chassis options with innovations such as mirror cams and meeting the highest Direct Vision Standards from the can which is ever important in the London area.  Like other manufacturers, DAF is also entering the all-electric market with trials currently taking place for these models.

Our busy HTC depots are also complemented with Parts sales through DAF’s own TRP brand, offering all make truck parts, not just for our depot customers but also for many independent customers around London and the south.

HTC is now run by the very experienced Peter Gibbons and his team from their Heathrow base and the team has won many DAF dealer awards and helped support DAF’s leading market share in UK commercial vehicles.  HTC also boasts an industry leading training programme through DAF to ensure that all colleagues receive the best training across all roles to ensure that HTC remains a great place to work.

In addition to its busy Truck business, HTC has also successfully expanded into Van sales with FIAT Professional and Maxus, offering market-leading and competitive van sales and conversions.

To learn more about HTC visit their website by clicking here.

Vehicle Distribution Division:
West Pennine Trucks
Heathrow Truck Centre
Intercounty Truck & Van
Midlands Truck & Van

Heathrow Truck Centre

HTC was one of the UK’s first DAF Franchise holders which Ballyvesey then purchased in 2007 in order to invest and grow through its own performance and also through acquisition of other DAF dealers.

HTC now has busy depots operating day and night and cover Oxford, Reading, Hemel Hempstead, Dunstable, Heathrow, Park Royal, Croydon and Belvedere.  These areas are amongst the busiest in the UK with thousands of DAFs in operation and major motorways covering the area, meaning that the 24-hour DAF Aid trucks and technicians are always busy!

Like many manufacturers, the DAF trucks have constantly evolved and now include a wide range of award-winning Tractor units, Rigids and Chassis options with innovations such as mirror cams and meeting the highest Direct Vision Standards from the can which is ever important in the London area.  Like other manufacturers, DAF is also entering the all-electric market with trials currently taking place for these models.

Our busy HTC depots are also complemented with Parts sales through DAF’s own TRP brand, offering all make truck parts, not just for our depot customers but also for many independent customers around London and the south.

HTC is now run by the very experienced Peter Gibbons and his team from their Heathrow base and the team has won many DAF dealer awards and helped support DAF’s leading market share in UK commercial vehicles.  HTC also boasts an industry leading training programme through DAF to ensure that all colleagues receive the best training across all roles to ensure that HTC remains a great place to work.

In addition to its busy Truck business, HTC has also successfully expanded into Van sales with FIAT Professional and Maxus, offering market-leading and competitive van sales and conversions.

To learn more about HTC visit their website by clicking here

Vehicle Rental Division:
Centurion Truck Rental
DGC 
DMC Trailers
Falcon Self Drive

DGC

DGC Limited is an established provider of quality vehicle rental and contract hire solutions for customers in London, Kent, Essex, and Surrey.

DGC is the local provider of business-to-business commercial vehicle rental and contract hire. DGC is a nimble vehicle rental provider with a professional and dynamic team specialising in vehicle specification and compliance.

DGC create partnerships built upon trust and a deep understanding of its customer’s operations and individual fleet requirements; allowing them to focus on its core business. For independent advice regarding fleet legislation, compliance or vehicle specification speak to DGC today. Its highly experienced and dedicated team is on hand to react to individual needs with the knowledge and passion to solve any requirement.

From Vans to Trucks, 1 week to 5 years, DGC has the right solution for many transport and operational needs.

To learn more about DGC, visit their website by clicking here.

Transport Services Division:
Commercial Vehicle Auctions
Rockmount Vehicle Maintenance
Sapphire Vehicle Services 

Rockmount Vehicle Maintenance

Formed in 2010, Rockmount Vehicle Maintenance is passionate about its experience and professional service to its valued customers. Rockmount strives to offer a first-class customer experience through its staff by delivering four key elements: commitment, understanding, trust, and honesty, to ensure a business partnership that stands the test of time.


Rockmount prides itself on its Quality Management Systems and has the following ISO accreditations: ISO 9001, ISO 14001 & 45001. This demonstrates its capability to deliver its services and products to the highest standards.

Its facilities enable Rockmount to provide the best possible service. Facilities include a 33-bay workshop with an extensive yard, a MAHA MOT test lane, tank wash, truck brush wash, 2x 8T overheard workshop cranes, and 24-hour site security.

Rockmout is now also a Mercedes-Benz partner and is currently maintaining the Montgomery Transport Group fleet in Ireland. Becoming a Mercedes-Benz partner has widened Rockmounts customer base, and the team is looking forward to the opportunities this may bring.

To learn more about Rockmount Vehicle Maintenance, visit their website by clicking here.

Construction Equipment Division:
Contract Plant Rental
Norwest Plant
Sleator Plant
TDL Equipment 

Contract Plant Rental

CPR delivers bespoke, comprehensive contract plant rental solutions designed to meet the diverse needs of its clients. It offers medium and long-term rental opportunities for plant and equipment, with a concentration on access equipment, heavy construction, specialist attachments and waste handling market. Its aim is to meet all aspects of self–drive plant hire requirements, underpinning its customer’s business now and for the future.

Equipment Contract Hire allows customers to have all the benefits of having new equipment over an agreed period of time without the unpredictable costs of ownership. Its customers also have peace of mind that service maintenance, warranty issues, and repairs are part of the hire cost. A huge benefit is there are no upfront deposits and full VAT payments to find, with the obvious advantage of the equipment being off the balance sheet and no concerns about selling the equipment.

CPR aims to be long-term supply partner, supporting many businesses needs by offering the latest machines on flexible terms with full 24/7 support and back up to keep your business running as efficiently as possible.

To learn more about Contract Plant Rental, click here.

Trailer Division
Montracon

Montracon

Montracon is a UK-based trailer manufacturer with over 40 years of experience. The company has a wide range of trailers to choose from, including curtainsiders, box vans, flats, machinery carriers, skeletals, and fridges. Montracon is known for its high-quality trailers and its commitment to customer service.


In recent years, Montracon has invested heavily in its manufacturing facilities. This has allowed the company to increase its production capacity and improve its efficiency.

Montracon also has a dedicated refurbishment and repair facility, which offers a wide range of services. In addition, Monracon has multiple parts depots across the UK.

To learn more about Montracon, click here.

Central Services Division:
Digital Marketing
Clemence Rogers
ICT
Health and Safety
Property Maintenance
Finance and Payroll
Insurance & Risk Management
Procurement Services

Snap shot of the H&S Team and colleagues with yours truly, David Booker, third from the left

Health and Safety

Ballyvesey Holdings Health & Safety Department has seen significant changes over the last 25 years and this is an appropriate opportunity to bring these improvements to the wider attention of the group. Over the years as a business we have migrated from the centralised provision of H&S guidance via the offices of Ballyvesey to a devolved system utilising individual business unit responsibility and growing internal H&S support services within each of the largest companies across the group. We have successfully secured H&S services within all of the major business units and are operating on a platform deemed the 3 rings of safety plus 1.

• Strong operational awareness of H&S
• Dedicated Business Unit H&S Resource
• Centralised Group H&S Support & Communication
• External H&S Auditing

Intercounty Truck and Van seized the initiative by the appointment of Jimmy Falconer, Health & Safety Manager some 2 years ago and Jimmy’s arrival gave the company immediate and dedicated access to health and safety support and expertise. His arrival was followed shortly afterwards by Ian Holt who joined HTC as their Health & Safety Manager and the reorganisation continued with the long-serving Gary Long severing his services to the wider remit of the Truck Division and concentrating those efforts solely on Midlands Truck & Van.

Sapphire Vehicle Services then promoted Katie Atkin to the role partially vacated by Gary when Katie became their H&S Manager. Montracon already has two dedicated Health & Safety Officers in place covering their Doncaster, Mallusk and Market Weighton factories reporting to Nigel Machin, Health & Safety Manager, and very recent events have seen George Anderson and Aaron Elener, both Compliance Managers, extend their operational activities to encompass health and safety responsibilities for the Montgomery Transport Group in Ireland and GB respectively.

The Health & Safety Managers now hold a monthly Teams meeting to foster a culture of shared experiences and where applicable shared documentation as we move progressively towards the BVH declared objective of accreditation to ISO 45001 – the health and safety management standard. Some of the BVH companies have already achieved this accreditation – Montracon, Montgomery Tank Services and Rockmount Vehicle Maintenance and Intercounty Truck and Van have just successfully passed the Stage 1 audit. Stage 2 is scheduled for the end of June, and this will hopefully see a succession of the BVH companies go down a similar route but with the benefit of not having to reinvent the wheel and using the documentation and drawing on the experiences of their peers.
I also meet with each Managing Director on a quarterly basis for the purposes of communication and guidance. This is an important aspect of communicating and highlighting the important work that is being done and helps to reinforce the H&S responsibilities associated with senior management positions. I am delighted that as part of this process every Managing Director in the Group recently successfully completed a H&S management course.

Lastly, after a very long association with what is now EcoOnline – formerly 80/20/Effective Software/Engage EHS the BVH Board has recently sanctioned a move to Evotix which is another supplier of specialist H&S software. The proposed move involved the full consultation and endorsement of the BVH IT Department, and we will shortly begin the transfer of what is now a sizeable amount of data from the existing system to the new one. Once installed, the system will provide the business with greater transparency, promote a quicker and more consistent accident investigation process across the group, and accord with the expectations of our insurers. We aim to have the switch completed by the end of September 2023 when the existing agreement with EcoOnline will expire.

With all of these changes in mind, including the recent certification of many of the H&S team as Mental Health First Aiders, I remain confident that we can continue to provide the BVH Group with the level of expertise and support they need to remain competitive and reduce the associated health and safety risks wherever needed.

Dave Booker
Group Health & Safety Manager

News from around the Ballyvesey Group

We are delighted to congratulate our Group Financial Accountant, Peter Martin, on being awarded Referee of the Year at the Ulster Rugby 2022/2023 awards.

Peter has been refereeing rugby for over 10 years and has officiated at all levels of the game, from schools and youth rugby to the professional level. He is a highly respected referee who is known for his fairness and consistency.

In the past year, Peter has refereed some of the biggest games in Irish rugby, including the 2023 All Ireland League Final between Clontarf and Terenure at the Aviva Stadium. He has also been appointed to referee at the World Rugby Challenger series 2023 in South Africa and the Olympic recharge qualifier in Poland in June 2023. He is also a member of the IRFU High-Performance Development Group, which is the governing body of Rugby Union on the island of Ireland.

Peter is a rising star in the world of rugby refereeing, and we are sure he will achieve great things in the years to come. We are proud to have him as part of the Ballyvesey team, and we wish him all the best in his future endeavour.

Well done, Peter!

 

Volta Trucks, the leading and disruptive all-electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services provider, has announced the appointment of Sapphire Vehicle Services as its first Certified Service Partner for the UK.

Perry Reeves Managing Director, Sapphire Vehicle Services said;

“We are delighted to be appointed as a certified service partner for the UK and looking forward to developing the relationship in the future. Having already invested heavily in training, tooling, and charging infrastructure over the last two years we are excited at the prospect of working closely with our colleagues at Volta Trucks to develop the business and support customers across the UK. Having driven and experienced the Volta Zero and seen first-hand the extremely high level of support and staff already in place there we are confident this will be an industry leading solution for all operators in this marketplace.”

Congratulations to Sam Smallwood, (son of our very own FORGE project manager, Derek Smallwood), who has recently won his first international cap playing volleyball for England U17’s ! 

Sam represented his country for the first time at the recent European U17 Volleyball Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, playing in three matches. 

This was the first time England have played at the Championships, and whilst match results didn’t go their way, they came close several times to taking sets off the continental teams.  This is a great achievement for a young team from England where volleyball is very much a minority sport – in continental Europe, volleyball is a mass-participation sport, with the bigger, premier-league clubs regularly attracting crowds in excess of 10,000 for their senior teams ! 

Participating in the championship tournament has provided a useful benchmark against which the team can measure their future progress;  Sam and the team returned from Sofia determined to learn from the experience and improve their game !  Who knows how far he’ll go ?  Sam’s dream is to play professionally, ideally in Europe amongst the elite. 

After a brief introduction to volleyball at his (then) new secondary school (playing over a badminton net !), Sam started playing volleyball in June 2019 at the age of 12.  His natural talent was soon noticed and four months later he was invited to attend an England Talent Pathways session at the National Volleyball Centre in Kettering – a day’s training with other young talented athletes and an opportunity to taste what its like to train and play at the national level. 

Since these early days, and despite many months of ‘no sport’ due to Covid lockdowns, Sam has continued to make steady progress… in October 2021, at the age of 15, he was selected to join the England U17 Boys Squad; he made his debut in the National Volleyball League (third tier) in March 2022, and plays in numerous club-level tournaments and grand prix for Sheffield Juniors. 

His selection for England to play in the Euro’s has involved plenty of hard work (he currently trains one weekend every month with England, three times a week with Sheffield Men’s first team and Juniors), making a number of sacrifices and he relies on his dad being readily available as taxi-driver !   

As with many sports, there is more to volleyball than initially meets the eye !  With plenty of technical skills, spatial awareness (of players on both sides of the net and anticipating the flight of the ball) tactics, strategies, I call it ‘fast chess’ !! 

If you are inspired by Sam’s story, or are interested in playing volleyball (indoor, beach, sitting), then please get in touch or visit the national governing body’s websites to find a club near you… 

www.volleyballengland.org 

www.nivolleyball.com 

https://www.volleyballwales.org 

https://www.scottishvolleyball.org 

https://www.volleyballireland.com/ 

HTC Hemel is an esteemed DAF Dealer that has recently been honoured with the prestigious ‘Sword of Excellence’ by #DAF Trucks Limited. Jane Barrett, a much admired Dept manager, proudly wields the two-handed #Claymore that symbolises the power and determination of the workforce in their recent achievements.

Well done Jane from the whole team at HTC & Ballyvesey

Welcome to the second update from Project FORGE for the Ballyvesey Corporate newsletter – 2023 is already proving to be as busy as anticipated on Project FORGE!
 
Already we are into March (where does the time go?!)  and Project FORGE is making steady progress in a number of areas which will continue to become increasingly visible to you over the coming months…
 
People Central (Core HR) – as a reminder, this workstream is about consolidating core HR data into a single system, whilst retaining boundaries between the various businesses within the Group.   Following the successful pilot in Midlands Truck & Van, rollout is proceeding across the group with InterCounty Truck and Van, Corporate Services, Clemence Rogers and DMC already using the new system.  Every other business unit continues to gather their business data, and we now have about half the employees loaded in readiness for launches into the business units.  This will quickly increase as data is submitted to the project over the coming weeks from the larger business units.   The project continues to work closely with the remaining individual business units on launching People Central – keep a look out for further communications about this!
 
People Pay – there is plenty happening behind the scenes in this space!   Since the last newsletter, our test environment has been built/ configured to suit our requirements; we have also been preparing for formal testing (identifying test scenarios, training the testers in the test team, and so on).  We have also been looking at and planning, beyond User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and preparing for Payroll Comparison Testing (PCT).  Providing this is successful, then we will launch into the business units, although detailed planning for this has yet to commence.  (Please be assured that we will not be changing your pay itself, only changing the system that pays you.)
 
People Recruitment – as if the above two workstreams weren’t enough, we have also been testing the Recruitment module and this is nearing completion.  This will then be showcased to key stakeholders before incorporating any feedback and beginning the rollout.  The Recruitment module seeks to make improvements to our recruiting, making it digital, via a single source gateway, and easier to use.
 
Expenses – in addition to all of this, we have also recently started the selection process for a group-wide expenses solution which will operate like Project Forge as a single solution gateway for all users of the business expenses system.
 
Time Capture – “time worked” is captured in a variety of ways across the various business units.  This workstream is seeking to bring some standardisation.  With a variety of current practices, this is one of the more complicated pieces of work within Project FORGE, and so we are not rushing into this significant piece of work.
Without a doubt, this is a complex ‘change’ programme and there is a continuous cycle of changes for many if not all of us over the coming months and beyond.  
 
If you would like to know more about the project, or have a specific question, then please get in touch with the project team via FORGE.enquiries@ballyvesey.com