Company History

Graham And Sue Westcott,
G.J. Cooper Group

The Company History:

Geoffrey John Cooper was born in London at the end of the First World War and orphaned at an early age.

Before the Second World War, he joined Burrows Transport in their offices at Tower Hill, London. Burrows operated lorries working out of the then prosperous London docks and wharves. They also sub contracted substantial volumes of cargo to back loaders. Indeed, in those days, most sub contracting was organised around Tower Hill, and all of the leading London "clearing houses" were based there.

Geoff volunteered for the forces at the outbreak of the Second World War, and was quickly captured, and spent some years in concentration camps under somewhat severe conditions, mostly in Poland.

After the War, he returned to Burrows and became responsible for a branch office which he had set up in Southampton.

In 1948 the Labour Government Nationalised the road haulage industry and formed British Road Services (BRS) to run it. A few smaller operators were allowed to keep their vehicles, with stringent conditions attached to what they could carry, for whom, and where. As a result of the virtual monopoly of BRS, many clearing houses were forced out of business.

BRS were too big and their staff not motivated. As a result, they were often inefficient and great demands were made on the few private operators left in business.

Geoff Cooper was friendly with the directors of Burgess Webb and Squire, an old established fruit importing business based in Southampton and Bristol. BWS required an "independent" service to move their produce, and after discussing the matter with Geoff Cooper, they registered G.J. Cooper (Shipping & Transport) Ltd, on 5th March 1952. The Company commenced trading in July of that year. It had a capital of 100 £1.00 shares. 51 were owned by BWS and 49 by Geoff, who sold his car to raise the money. There were office in Southampton and Bristol.

The first Meeting of the Board was held on 25th March 1952 and appointed Mr. H. Squire and Mr. W.J. Burgess Webb as Directors in addition to Mr. G. J. Cooper and Mr. J.P. Kelly (who had been representing Burgess Webb and Squire Ltd).

The business quickly flourished working for BWS, and a growing number ofother fruit importers, both arranging customs clearance and transport. In those days, fruit was carried "conventionally" in the holds offreighters, and the discharge of 20,000boxes ofBrazilian oranges would take a week. During that time, Coopers had a man on the quayside checking the cargo, and supervising the loading away.

Ron Mack joined the business on a Board resolution of1.12.53 at a salary of£750pa. Ron had a background in haulage, having worked for one ofthe major Southampton hauliers, and latterly with BRS. Ron brought with him a "following" ofnon produce customers, such as the Pirelli General Cable Works and South Western Tar Distilleries.

The results for the full year oftrading ending 31.12.53 meant that £786.5s.1d was available for distribution, and a dividend of 20%,less income tax of9/- was declared, which cost the Company £110.0.0. The balance was retained as a reserve.

At the turn of the decade, Rick Adams joined the business to develop the customs clearance side and Graham Westcott, a little later, to build up the transport clearing house work. Both were appointed to the Board on 12th July 1968 with fees of£250pa.

By this time, the haulage industry had been de-nationalised and there were again many independent hauliers seeking work.

With the commencement ofthe first Thoresen Ferry service from Southampton to France, came the first loads ofEuropean produce "on wheels" - notably French apples, followed over the years by almost every type offruit and vegetable grown throughout Europe.

The clearance and movement ofproduce required high priority and great expertise. Cooper's reputation soon spread, and there were tremendous demands for its services.

When Truckline Ferries began their service from Poole, their Directors asked Coopers to open a branch at the Port to help generate business, and this developed into a major and profitable operation. So also, did branches opened in Dover and Portsmouth, although a venture into Newhaven never produced the volume ofbusiness ofthe other locations.

The closure ofthe City docks in Bristol and the general malaise at Avonmouth, coupled with staffing difficulties, led to the closure ofthe Bristol office in the late 1970's.

During this time, the Company had maintained its close links with BWS, who exercised minimum interference, despite their control ofthe Company. BWS themselves, were owned by Francis Nicholls Ltd, a well known Birmingham based produce merchant and they, in turn, were acquired by Geest. Thus, although nothing changed on the outside, Coopers became 51% owned by Geest, albeit indirectly.

Eventually, Geoff reached retirement age and was obliged to sell his 49% shareholding to Geest, thereby giving them complete control. Ron Mack took over as Managing Director until his retirement, at which time, Rick Adams was appointed. To maintain continuity, the Poole and Dover branch Managers, Bill Wareham and Angela Wilson, were appointed Directors, although Bill subsequently left to pursue a new career out of the industry.

With Geest at the helm, Cooper's "suffered" from the greater red tape and management interference associated with a major Group. Nevertheless, its financial success and strong management, ensured that it maintained its profitability and its autonomy.

In the late 1980's, Rick Adams gave up the duties of Managing Director, although remaining with the Company for a brief period and Graham Westcott took over.

All this time, the traditional business continued to grow and although a warehouse in Southampton was sold, the payroll still listed around 50 employees. However, suggestions of impending "disaster" were rife.

Britain's growing involvement with the European Community meant that it was liable to subscribe to a "free movement" policy, allowing goods to enter the UK without the need for customs clearance if the had originated from an EEC member state. Such a policy had serious implications, since the ferry port branches relied on these clearances for their livelihoods.

In 1988, Graham Westcott was asked by Geest to prepare a five year strategy plan to avoid the demise of Coopers on 1st January 1993, when Harmonisation was scheduled to take place. In the course of this, he forecast a profit of £300,000 in 1992, and a loss of £100,000 in 1993.

His proposals were that Cooper's should diversify into other activities and to ports handling non EEC cargo. This should be done by acquisition and investment. Geest supported the proposal, and as part of this strategy, Cooper's bought a small warehousing, forwarding and haulage business in Liverpool, which was intended to be a northern base.

In further pursuit of this policy, negotiations were commenced to purchase the business of Royers Ltd.

Royers themselves dated from February 1982, when brothers Lionel and Don Marks, after having disposed of a motor dealership, took an interest in a warehousing business. Lionel was seeking to retire, but Don wished to remain in employment (he still is) but without the responsibility of running a growing business. Negotiations were long and eventually terms and conditions were virtually agreed. Graham Westcott asked Geest for final approval and was eventually informed that, due to the Geest Group corporate strategy, although the acquisition was "right" for Cooper's, they could not approve it.
The Liverpool operation was not viable in its own right and was run down and closed.

With no scope for expansion or diversification, G.J. Cooper (Shipping & Transport) Ltd faced a bleak future, and closure in 1993 was a clear threat. With this in mind, Graham Westcott approached Geest with a view to purchasing the business. Geest, in turn, advertised the Company for sale at £2.5 million, but were unable to find a buyer. Eventually, they began negotiations with G.J. Cooper Holdings Ltd, a business set up by Graham Westcott, with the agreement of Geest, to effect the transfer of ownership.

In October 1991, G.J. Cooper Holdings Ltd purchased the whole of the issued share capital of G.J. Cooper (Shipping & Transport) Ltd. The deal was financed, in part, by a loan from Lloyds Bank, who were very supportive; in part, by an investment by Geoff Cooper, and by monies raised by various members of the staff in small and larger amounts.

As soon as the transfer of ownership had been signed, negotiations recommenced with the Directors of Royers, and a year later, G.J. Cooper Holdings Ltd acquired the share capital of Royers Ltd, based at Goodwood Road, Eastleigh.

At that time, Royers ran seven four wheelers, had a modest case making operation, and undertook some warehousing. Even with the case making, the whole fleet could be parked inside the premises at Eastleigh, which was only 7000sq ft. 

1992 was a very good year financially for Cooper's and this helped finance the purchase of Royers, which also showed a small profit.

Despite the "sword of damoc1es" hanging over the business, Cooper's decided to take no action prior to 1.1.93 and EEC Harmonisation, but to await the result of January trading. Then was still hope that Spain and Portugal would still not be "full" members of the Community and these Countries represented a high proportion of the business. There was some optimism that produce importers would require a "port agency" service, and that revenue could be derived from undertaking "Intrastat Returns", which were required by Government.

In fact, January was a disaster. Spain and Portugal were hastily admitted as "full members", few importers wanted to pay for a port service, and the Intrastat rules were largely ignored.

As a consequence, there were redundancies in all sectors and, as the year progressed, Poole office was closed, later followed Portsmouth being reduced to a "skeleton" staff prior to its closure. The following year, the goodwill of Dover office was sold to Harbour Shipping, and finally, the remaining business at Newhaven, where Chris Harman had valiantly soldiered on alone, was passed over to Stena Sealink.

The financial results for "Cooper's" for 1993 were nearly as bad as had been forecast way back in 1988!

Between 1993 and 1995, considerable investment had been made in Royers, by Cooper Holdings. These had enabled fleet growth, and the relocation of the case making division. To save money, the small remaining "Cooper's" operation transferred to the already cramped premises at Eastleigh. The Group then obtained the concession to trial a "new" type of customs clearance procedure, known as ERTS (Enhanced Remote Transit Shed).

This enabled full containers of mixed cargo to be removed from the docks uncleared, under a guarantee given by Cooper's. The cargo could then be offloaded and cleared by any approved importer or agent. Although slow to start, this system, now widely adopted and open to many, has proved a major source of revenue and constantly placed added pressures on our warehousing space.

During 1992-5, Cooper Holdings continued to seek cost effective ways to expand and develop, and in furtherence of this policy, informal and formal discussions were held with a number of forwarding and haulage businesses, who might be interested in joining the Group.

In most cases, these came to nothing, but they never ended in an atmosphere of animosity.

During 1995 an agreement was concluded for the purchase of Road Sea.

Road Sea was an old established and respected "name" and, like G.J. Cooper (Shipping &   Transport) Ltd, had developed from Southampton into various South Coast ports, and also Felixstowe and Heathrow. Their Directors had faced up to "Harmonisation" by divesting each branch into a separate Company, which was disposed of to its Management. The Southampton business became Road Sea (Southampton) Ltd, under the control of John Brett.

John was seeking to plan for his retirement, and Cooper Holdings were able to negotiate an arrangement which provided for the phased reduction of his workload. This was effected by G.J. Cooper Holdings Ltd purchasing Road Sea Ltd, which was owned by John and his wife, and then Road Sea Ltd buying the assets, customer base and goodwill of Road Sea (Southampton) Ltd. John retained the shares of Road Sea (Southampton) Ltd, which changed its name and has now been wound up.

The purchase of Road Sea enabled the cramped "Cooper" staff to relocate back to a convenient town location shared with Road Sea. This took place alongside the move of the accounts staff from their unsatisfactory accommodation into modern offices alongside the case making division.
Sadly, Geoff Cooper died before the Road Sea deal was concluded, but we are certain that he would have been pleased with it.
Since Geoff died, we have enjoyed the continued support of his widow, Brenda.

In 1996/7 it became increasingly clear that the development of our Group was being held back by our lack of space, and we began looking around for cost effective options to supplement our two sites at Eastleigh, but to no avail.

The packing and case making division of Royers was not producing an adequate return, due primarily to the high cost of skilled labour and the need for overtime and weekend working to service customer demand.

The division's customer list was sold to a competitor and the staff transferred under TUPE arrangements.
This allowed the Stanstead Road warehouse to be used for long term storage and secure vehicle parking. We also obtained "overflow" warehousing nearby.

In 1998, an opportunity arose for us to obtain a much needed trailer parking facility at a former RN Stores Depot at West End, and this was followed by a long term lease on a 30,000sq ft warehouse with offices on the same site. We were able to terminate our Stanstead Road lease and assign our Goodwood Road lease and relocate all of our transport and warehousing facilities to the site, now known as Chalcroft Distribution Park, West End.

Following upon the demise of R and G Freight Service Ltd, we saw an opening to service some of their former customers by providing services to Portugal and Ireland (North and South). To facilitate this as a free standing operation, Road Sea Ltd transferred its other activities to G.J. Cooper (Shipping & Transport) Ltd, and concentrated on the new operation. The Irish services have seen steady growth and form an important part of our Group operations.

Continued development of our warehousing and ER TS services soon put the existing warehouse (No. 3) under pressure and additional space was acquired at No. 7, where we were also able to relocate our growing accounts team in a very rural environment.

The imminent expiry of the lease of the offices used by G.J. Cooper (Shipping & Transport) Ltd, in Southampton, led us to move to Berrywood Business Village, which is located close to Chalcroft. Here their operations team and our Group accounts were able to occupy modern offices. All of the GJC (Shipping And Transport) Ltd staff and group accounts subsequently relocated to Chalcroft in 2004.

In 2000/2001 space again became a problem and we added Unit 9 to our portfolio for long term storage and Unit 1 for a specific contract.

On 1st January 2001, our new business, Chalcroft Logistics Ltd commenced trading as an arms length company to manage and develop the warehousing activities of the Group. Existing business was transferred in from our other Companies and in its first full year of trading its turnover was close to £1 million.

Also in 2001, we entered into meaningful discussions with the Director shareholders of Boyes Conning Freight Services Ltd, with a view to acquiring the business. BCFS occupied a substantial leased site at Woolston, Southampton, which lease was due to expire, and they were having difficulty in finding cost effective suitable alternatives fortheir warehousing and ERTS services, and their 25 strong fleet.

The acquisition of their share capital by G. J. Cooper Holdings Ltd, was completed in mid October, and by November, they had been "squeezed" into Chalcroft.

Since then, the Boyes Conning ERTS and warehouse services have been largely transferred into Chalcroft Logistics Ltd, and a re-organisation early in 2002, and a £50000 investment in a new computerised traffic office, has led to the Royers and Boyes Conning traffic teams working as one, with around half of our 50 strong fleet being allocated to groupage, under the Boyes Conning banner, and the other half undertaking full loads, under the Royers banner. The Royers name is slowly being phased out.

The acquisition also brought with it a workshop facility, which has been developed to the overall benefit of the Group.

Today, the Group comprises:

G. J.COOPER HOLDINGS L TD, the Parent Company, with nearly 20 employee shareholders. 

COOPER ROAD SEA LTD, specialising in import clearances, Port agency and freight forwardingr. Our warehousing operation falling under the same banner provides warehousing, ERTS, container devanning and consolidation.

BOYES CONNING FREIGHT SERVICES LTD, specialise in UK groupage deliveries for Port users and industry in general.

The group conmprises of 120 personnel, including drivers, fitters, warehousemen, traffic and warehouse clerks, accounts personnel, other administration and senior Management. 

So what happens next?

We continue to grow organically through the acquisition of new business in a competitive environment. We need to ensure that this business provides an adequate return on our investments and efforts.

The Working Time Directive and other legislation makes drivers a more sought after and costly commodity than hitherto, and we will have to ensure that their expense is properly reflected in our charging structure.

We currently hold Operator's Licences in the Western and West Midlands traffic areas which are adequate for our foreseeable needs
The warehousing situation at Chalcroft remains under constant review, since if we continue to grow it is essential that we are able to develop our occupancy of the site, rather than move elsewhere.

Chalcroft was, at one time, rail connected; and still sits alongside the Portsmouth-Eastleigh line. We believe that there is scope to reconnect the rail1ink with a view to the provision of direct links to the Midlands and perhaps, elsewhere. We are supported in this by our Landlords.

Regrettably, Railtrack (as was) were reluctant to support any scheme which involves signalling and the Strategic Rail Authority have been difficult to communicate with although a senior representative has recently made a site visit. Since our plans are in accord with the Government's much stated desire to move freight from road to rail we are surprised that there is so much red tape attached to our proposals.

Whilst the next year or two will be focussed upon internal growth, survival despite the Labour Government policies, and margin development, we will continue to pursue sensibly priced opportunities for acquisition to ensure that we remain in the Premier League of the South's haulage and logistics businesses, and in 2052 will celebrate our centenary.

G.R WESTCOTT