Q&A: How Anchor Vans are operating through lockdown
We spoke to Simon and Greg Joyce from Anchor Vans to find out how the current situation has affected their business and how they are operating through the lockdown period as best they can. They also tell us what they are doing in preparation of the restrictions being lifted to ensure the business is back up to speed and ready to start retailing again as soon as it is safe to do so.
Q: Can you tell me a bit about Anchor Vans and your roles within the business?
A: Simon: We’re a family business started by our father 30 years ago. Dad started out in prestige car sales eventually becoming a Managing Director of BMW and Volvo dealerships. When he started out on his own, he quickly realised that there was a great business in commercials and set up Anchor Vans to apply the prestige car training he had received to the sale of vans. We now sell around 2,500 vans each year nationwide from our Reading base, as well as being a Ford Service Franchise.
Greg: Both Simon and I have worked for the business since we were very young, starting with washing vans at about 11 or 12 and working in every part of the business at one time or another. We’ve gradually progressed through various roles until about 9 years ago Simon became the Managing Director alongside his role as the Sales and Marketing Director and I assumed the role of Finance Director alongside my role as the Aftersales Director.
Q: What was March like immediately before lockdown?
A: Simon: As most of our customers are businesses, March is traditionally a very good time of year for us as they come to the end of the financial year and look to upgrade their commercial vehicles. This year was no different and we had a great start to the calendar year, right up to the point of the government restrictions, when customers became less focused on buying their next van, and more focused on developing strategies for surviving the coming weeks.
Q: At what point did you decide to close the showroom?
A: Simon: Immediately after lockdown was announced, we called staff into the office for a briefing, devising a strategy for working from home where possible and working in shift patterns in the office when necessary. Our focus at that point was on sharing workload among the whole workforce to provide as much security for our employees as possible, which was why it was a huge relief when the government announced the job retention scheme.
Q: So have you been able to take advantage of the job retention scheme?
A: Greg: Yes we have furloughed over 80% of our workforce, and currently have about 12 people still working across both sales and service. Our service department is still open for keyworkers, which is vital as we do a lot of work for couriers, the local police and ambulance services and plumbers and electricians still needing to provide a service.
Q: What about the sales department – are you still getting enquiries?
A: Simon: Yes we’re still getting a large number of enquiries and whatever is going on in the World, buyers expect somebody to be at the end of the phone, so we’re making sure we respond to all enquiries immediately.
Q: You have always offered nationwide delivery, so has it been easy for you to continue selling?
A: Greg: Yes we’ve always done business in this way, so the basic systems were all in place to allow us to continue with nationwide delivery but we’ve needed to make lots of changes to make sure they’re now appropriate for the current climate.
Simon: This has undoubtedly been one of the biggest challenges. We are committed to continuing to fulfil deliveries, albeit with reduced numbers of drivers and we’re adjusting to new ways of delivering vehicles. We have trained the whole driver team on sanitising vehicles and how to do contactless deliveries, as well as provided them with PPE to ensure they and the customer remain safe. We’re also trying to do all deliveries with our recovery truck, to ensure drivers aren’t required to use public transport at any stage.
Q: Have there been any positives that have come out of the last few weeks?
A: Simon: Having furloughed a large proportion of our employees, I’m now doing lots of admin tasks that I would never have got involved with before. It’s been a fantastic eye opener and has helped me to identify some processes we can improve on and given me a new appreciation of some of the difficulties staff face.
Greg: We’ve really had to encourage everybody that is still working to operate at 110% and go over and above their normal roles – the commitment people have shown and the new ways of working have been fantastic.
Q: In preparation for when the government say you can open, what are you doing to make sure your business is back up to speed and ready to start retailing again?
A: Greg: We’re in a unique position that because we’ve kept a good chunk of our business going, we won’t face a huge backlog of work to pick up when we can reopen. Our preparation is now focused on when we will revert back to traditional levels of Marketing spend and make sure that once we have re-opened, customers can be confident that it’s safe to buy from us.
Q: This is really important as it’s expected some people will feel reluctant to visit retailers. What will you be doing to make sure customers are 100% confident that it’s safe to buy a van from you?
A: Simon: We started trying to instil this as part of our ways of working weeks ahead of Lockdown. We already have processes in place for handwashing and sterilising of our working areas, and we have signs and taped walkways to aid social distancing. Our sales team will be encouraging contactless viewing, customers can view vehicles while driving round the site and we have started offering oil changes and MOTs where the customer doesn’t even have to leave their vehicle. We have always done a lot of our sales without a test drive – we’ll be continuing to make sure we offer a service that provides customers with the confidence to do this.