The industry has been battered by administrations and closures this year, so it is heartening to see at least one success story emerge from the ashes of insolvency in 2024: AE Chilled’s pre-pack sale.
And it was saved by a joke.
The temperature-controlled distribution firm’s founder, Alan Emslie (pictured left), said: “I was at my wit’s end, we had a large customer go into administration owing us hundreds of thousands of pounds. I had already lost my marriage and injected £350,000 from my own funds back into the business to try and save it and the jobs.”
To add to the stress, entrepreneur and AE Chilled landlord Peter Waddell (right) then walked into the office chasing overdue rent on the company’s site at Poulton Close in Dover.
“I just said to Peter, jokingly, ‘Don’t suppose you want to buy a business, do you?’ continued Emslie.
“It just so happened that he did.”
Waddell himself is no stranger to adversity. Deaf and dyslexic, he grew up in a care home in Ayrshire then lived rough and begged on the streets before driving minicabs while still in his teens.
But he went on to build a major property and business portfolio off the back of his successful Big Motoring World used car supermarket chain, which shrewdly catered to a public desire for prestige brands like BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.
Waddell saw potential in the firm Emslie had founded from his kitchen table in 2015 and injected some of his £500m fortune into the reborn company, now operating as Big Transport.
He has created a new management app to streamline operations as the company expands into running more refrigerated trailers and fresh food distribution for supermarket customers.
“We’re not only using the technology to monitor and refine our operations via smartphone and tablet, but also enabling customers to track the whereabouts of shipments and inform them of arrivals,” he said.
“The system can also add extra layers of security, particularly reassuring on pharmaceutical shipments, where street values make them attractive to the wrong sort of people.
“We’re not necessarily going to be the cheapest, but we’re here to provide best service and customers’ peace of mind.”
The company’s turnaround has been dramatic since Emslie’s jokey offer to Waddell in June and the firm’s official rebirth in August.
“Initially, we still had to scale down a bit to move forward and we lost a couple of head office jobs,” said Emslie.
“But over the past three months, we have pushed back up to the £1million a month turnover and a 50-strong fleet of trucks that we had before we crashed and we have a clear path and strategy moving forward, under Peter’s guidance as our chairman.”
Next year looks even brighter. Emslie said Big Transport is set to pass the peak it previously reached by boosting the fleet to 75 HGVs and doubling staff numbers to 150.
It also plans to diversify into car transportation and it is currently scouting for five to six-acre sites in the Maidstone area with parking for up to 150 lorries.
“The key to growth now is not the recruitment of drivers,” said Waddell.
“We offer very attractive terms on that front plus the newest trucks with all the creature comforts drivers want, and have built a great team comprising UK drivers, men and women, plus some continental staff.
“No, it’s about infrastructure now, a core management that enables us to win a big contract and immediately switch on that new operation, source 30 vehicles say, and go to work.”
