Easi-Drive invests £1.5m in new Wythenshawe HQ

FAST-growing accident management firm Easi-Drive is investing £1.5m in new headquarters, and is also on the lookout for more satellite depots across the country.

The Wythenshawe headquartered company, owned by Simon Bellamy, his brother Daniel and sales director Gareth Berry, handles all aspects of non-fault claim work including credit repair, replacement hire and claims for injury and compensation.

It hit a turnover of £19.5m last year, and is on target to surpass that with £25m by its year end in March 2010, according to Simon Bellamy.

Easi-Drive employs 150 staff, 90 of which are based at its contact centre in Wythenshawe, where it has grown out of its existing 15,000 sq ft premises.

It has just bought 25,000 sq ft premises on the same industrial estate, investing £1.5m in the site, including refurbishment costs. Fit out has started and the company expects to have moved in by early spring 2010.

Office space on the new site will increase threefold from 5,000 sq ft to 15,000 sq ft, while warehouse space will remain the same at around 10,000 sq ft.

Mr Bellamy said: “The office space will be a lot more than we’ll need for now, but we are crammed in where we are.”

The company wants to sell its existing premises, which Bellamy reckons is probably worth around £0.5m, but it is also considering renting out the premises, given market conditions.

Easi-Drive’s fleet stands at between 750 and 1,000 vehicles, depending on the season, and it has two other depots, in Luton and Bristol. 

Mr Bellamy is on the lookout for suitable locations to open more satellite depots in the summer, the next being the North East around Darlington or Newcastle, where he wants around 6,000 sq ft of space.

“We have a lot of work up there and in Scotland. We are starting to look at locations, but will probably wait until we are in the new Manchester office before looking seriously. Having said that, if something before then we’ll make the move earlier.”

Around 60% of the company’s fleet is made up of what he calls “bog standard” cars and vans, with around 30% being taxis and dual control cars.

The remaining 10% comprises bikes, skip wagons and other specialist vehicles, such as the vans used for transporting glass panels. Easi-Drive also has three Lamborghini garages on its books.

It is these specialised services that offer the most growth potential to the company.

Mr Bellamy said: “Not many competitors want to do taxis because it’s complex. Each of the licensing councils has different rules. It’s a business where unless you were running 50 or 60 cars, it’s just not with doing so it’s hard for people to start in that area.

“We’ll keep our normal fleet as we want insurers to know we can provide for every sort of customer,” added Mr Bellamy.

He added that he wanted controlled slow growth without outside investment as he wanted to maintain control of the company.

“In another five or ten years, insurance companies will start to buy companies like ours, rather than outsourcing,” he said, pointing to the recent launch of accident management companies by the AA and Saga.

“I think they will buy companies that know what they are doing, rather than starting from fresh.”