BY COLIN DONALD
Clockwork Removals, the acquisitive UK-wide removals and storage group run by Scots entrepreneur Courtenay Morison, has defied a severe slump in the removals market by snapping up a further three depots in Preston, Louth and Windsor from Wales-based company Fox Moving.
The purchases take Clockwork's network of branches up to 16 throughout the UK. The freehold property at Louth in Lincolnshire was purchased for £450,000, down from a valuation of over £700,000 only a year ago.
The other two depots have six-month leases, requiring Clockwork to find freehold properties for relocation after that period. The combined assets of the business, which had a turnover of £2.5 million were acquired for £291,000.
The mortgage drought and the drastic seizing-up of the housing market has seen work for movers brutally curtailed recently. Clockwork has been forced to axe over 15% of its staff in 2008, and the company's turnover was £5m lower than the £20m projected last year. However, the company made a profit of over 2%.
Morison said: "I believe 2% to be OK in this market and substantially better than our main competitors. We have focused more in the commercial market and this has been far more resilient.
"There are two sides to every coin. On the one side things are tough and we are certainly battening down the hatches. On the other side there is fantastic value to be had. Cash has never been more important."
Morison had harsh words for the firm's erstwhile bankers, Bank of Scotland: "They aren't exactly helping and we don't even have an overdraft as it was withdrawn three months ago. These new depots are being funded through Abbey as the Bank of Scotland wasn't interested."
Clockwork is setting up a fund to invest in new opportunities for 2009. The fund will buy freehold assets and then Clockwork will sign a lease after acquiring the business for a nominal amount.
Morison, a former business associate of the metals tycoon and Rangers FC owner David Murray, set up Clockwork in 1996, originally combining car-fleet operations with a removals business. It now operates in more than a dozen locations, including six in England.
Last year it bought London-based storage group Edwards for £1.6m. In January, the London business became only the second removals and storage company to be granted a prestigious royal warrant by the Queen.
Earlier this year the company bought Perth Removals from the Oban-based John MacLachlan Group, and Sheffield-based Lawlers. The two acquisitions are expected to add annual sales of about £1m, even in a declining market.
Summing up the company philosophy, Morison said: "This business is all about people. If you give me a great business with shit people I'll lose money but give me a shit business with great people and I'll make money."
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