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Leicester Heavy Haulage, a business owned by four brothers, battled the recession and now its focus is on steady business rather than explosive expansion
IT'S OFTEN THE CASE that a company that works hard and achieves results rarely showboats, and Leicester Heavy Haulage is a perfect example. Founded in 1971 by Brian Rodwell, who died in July 2014, the business is now run by sons David, Stephen, Gary and Paul. Only the last two hold directorships for the sake of easy decisionmaking, but all four are shareholders.
Gary and Paul Rodwell are an unassuming pair. Take a flick through the company website and the array of equipment available, the services provided and the completed projects documented are impressive, as you would expect given this is a long-established and experienced specialist company. Paul says: "We move electricity generation equipment, do a lot of oil and gas industry work and construction - so we're in the same four things as everybody else who does heavy haulage!"
Quiet constructiveness is a family trait. Brian was once area manager for well-known heavy haulier Pointers, having moved from his native Wisbech to Leicester to manage the depot. Originally promised directorship, things changed radically after a takeover by RMC Group and Rodwell found himself area manager covering sites from Hull to Liverpool, Kingsbury and Northampton.
"He decided it wasn't for him," says Gary,"so he applied for an operator's licence in my mother's name and, with the backing of his customers in the area, went on his own." Initially called into a meeting and asked to withdraw the licence application, Brian's employer forced him to leave. He had already sold one of the company's surplus outfits to the local dealer. "It was a Scammell Highwayman with a Dyson 4-in-line trailer. He later purchased it himself and we've still got the tractor now," Gary says. "TWelve months later Pointers shut the Leicester depot down because he'd pinched all the work - he took some of his staff with him too, a few at the start to drive the trucks then the others followed later."
Family fortunes
It was pretty inevitable Brian would make a success of this venture given his long history of scheming with money. He kept 60 chickens as a...