Cartwright hits £100m after year of change

FAMILY-run trailer company Cartwright has enjoyed a year of spectacular growth following a major management restructure last year.

The firm, based at Broadheath, near Manchester, has recorded a 10% increase in revenue to £100m and profits have risen similarly to £5m.

Meanwhile, its workforce has grown from 500 to 700 in the last 12 months, 120 of whom are apprentices.

This follows a major restructure 12 months ago which saw brothers John and Steven Cartwright leaving the business after selling their 40% share.

Cousin Mark Cartwright is now managing director and his father, Peter, is chairman. Mark, John and Steven are all grandsons of Stanley Cartwright, who founded the company 63 years ago.

Mark Cartwright said the growth had evolved from the company’s uniquely diverse offering across many different areas, which means it has different competitors and various areas of the business.

“The main part of our business is manufacturing,” he said. “But the way we operate means we are not always coming up against the same competition.

“Our competitors don’t have the same diversity of product range that we do.

“We compete with multiple businesses on manufacturing and when you look at other areas of the business, like maintenance and rentals, then we are competing with different people in those markets. I suppose that is our unique selling point.

“Like many businesses this has been an evolutionary process.”

Cartwright said it was now a totally different business than the one his grandfather  launched 63 years ago.

“In those days we just traditional coachwork and bodywork  timber framed vans specialists,” he said.

“We then progressed on to making our own chassis in the 70s and it took time for us to build a reputation as a trade manufacturer, as well as a body builder.

“As time has evolved we’ve then grown into offering the finance arm, offering financial packaging for leasing the product. That has led towards rental of product and that has led to the maintenance offering on the product.”

The Cartwright wheel is continuing to turn to effect improvements to its offer.

The company has developed a new insulated product range for standard trailers and refrigerated and double-deck trailers.

There has also been a lot of work of on trailers used for deliveries to supermarkets.

And there has been a series of improvements to the “curtain sider” – the most common trailer seen on the motorways – with the enhancement of many key features.

But Cartwright and his new management are most proud of their standing in the local community of employers of up to 1% of the population of Altrincham and Sale.

And the company has just appointed SETA (Stockport Engineering and Training Association) as its training provider in a bid to take its apprenticeship initiative to the next level.

“We’ve got a growth pattern particularly in apprentices and commitment to apprenticeship schemes and younger people to improve our natural skills base,” said Cartwright.

“We are family company and we want to remain true to those values. Many fathers-sons and cousins work here and we have many female employees also.”