Vnw Ltd 078 Result - Vans Northwest Ltd

History and Chronology | Vans North West

2006
2006 – 2008

Starting from very humble beginnings with a recovery truck and a small compound in Prescot Merseyside, Vans North West Ltd was founded by Managing Director John Oakes in 2006, with an ambitious vision to be ALL things to ALL van customers at one location, and at the best possible price.

John has over 30 years of experience in the Light Commercial Vehicle industry, beginning his Commercial Vehicle industry career in 1986 as a Commercial Vehicle Technician. Following time served as a Commercial Vehicle Technician, John progressed with a move to Commercial Vehicle sales in 1992 at a local Mercedes-Benz franchise dealer, specialising in new and pre-owned Light Commercial Vehicle sales and progressing through the company in various buyer and management roles, ultimately managing a Mercedes-Benz dealer site in 2002. John continued his role in commercial vehicle sales until establishing Vans North West in June 2006.

2008
2008

2007
2007

In 2007, Vans North West employed its 1st member of staff. The first member of staff, John Leight, remains with Vans North West today, a habit most people adopt when they come to us and a testament to the company core values.

2008
2008

Graham Brown Joins Vans North West Ltd: In 2008, Graham Brown, lifelong friend of John Oakes, joined Vans North West as an Investor, Business Partner and 50% Owner.

Graham has over 30 years of experience in the Commercial Vehicle industry, starting his career as a Commercial Vehicle Painter at Sutton and Sons in St Helens. Graham is so old he remembers the day when painting vehicles with a brush was standard practice. Following the closure of the paint shop at Suttons in St Helens, Graham joined Ormskirk-based company Munro Commercials, where he progressed through the ranks and ultimately ended up managing the business for the Owner. In 2001, Graham joined the Liverpool-based Mercedes-Benz Light Commercial dealership, where he quickly became one of the most successful used vehicle salesmen at the company.

Vans North West Moves to New Site: Despite starting the business at the start of the banking financial crisis of 2007, and the largest economic recession since the great depression of the 1930s, 2008 saw the first stages of expansion for Vans North West Ltd. The successful start came with a move to a bigger and better location on the A580, East Lancashire Road, on the edge of Haydock Industrial Estate in St Helens.

The site went through a £100,000 re-development, from an overgrown brownfield makeshift car park into a site that would later welcome over 700 customers a year to place their trust in Vans North West Ltd to buy quality pre-owned vans.

2009
2009

In 2009, Vans North West Ltd become a United Rentals Group Licensee, providing an additional opportunity to acquire heavily discounted new vehicles through the buying power of United Rental Group, enabling the company to become a competitive New Vehicle Rental Provider in its customer offering.

2010
2010

Site Acquisition: 2010 presented a huge threat, or opportunity, to Vans North West Ltd. The land surrounding Vans North West was put up for sale, and a well-known car/van supermarket was poised to take the site, which threatened Vans North West’s existence. Still in the middle of the financial crisis, Vans North West Ltd took the very bold move to obtain funding in extremely testing times to acquire the site and secure the future of the company.

2010
2010

2014
2014

Vanarama Franchise Bought: In 2014, Vans North West Ltd purchased the Vanarama Leasing Franchise Territory for the North West. This enabled Vans North West Ltd to increase its customer offering from just used vehicles, rental vehicles and contract hire vehicles to leasing brand new Light Commercial Vehicles. Vans North West quickly established itself as one of the top-performing Vanarama Leasing Franchise Businesses in the UK.

2014

2014
2014

Jay Chadwick Joins Vans North West Ltd: In 2014, Jay Joined Vans North West as Sales Director to head up Leasing Operations.

Jay has over 25 years of experience in the Light Commercial Vehicle industry. Jay started his van career at a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Manchester with John Oakes in 1993. Jay quickly became a competent Sales Advisor rising quickly through the ranks. Jay has had a very successful experience at Ford, Mercedes, Iveco and was ultimately responsible for the overall running of sales operations at his final position before joining Vans North West Ltd.

2015
2015

Max Bannon Joins and Creates New Precedents: In 2015, Vans North West made a conscious decision to become a bigger company and the expansion began with a commitment to homegrown talent. Max Bannon was the first signing as Trainee Leasing Advisor, joining as a school leaver. Because Max has been with us from the start of his career, he quickly becomes embedded in the core values of the business and has since become an exceptionally successful Sales Executive, performing at a level far higher than his older peers. Max’s success was to become a blueprint for other young people within the business.

2017
2017

Vans Northwest Opens Aftersales Facility: The retirement of a neighbouring business owner in 2017 brought about an opportunity to acquire further premises which would allow Vans North West Ltd to create a purpose-built 4 bay vehicle preparation and vehicle aftersales / servicing and MOT facility. The new aftersales business was a rapid success with all Vans North West Ltd’s sales and leasing customers, offering an immaculate, low-cost servicing and MOT facility branded as Servicing Pro by Vans North West.

Recruitment Drive: With the opening of the aftersales facility, came the need to recruit aftersales personnel. Starting steadily, the team grew from 1 to 4 Technicians, including an apprentice.

2014
2017
2017

2018
2018

Builds 2nd Vehicle Preparation Shop: The immediate success of the aftersales facility caused the premises to be quickly outgrown, which required further capacity. The building of a further 3 bay workshop commenced in 2018, which included an environmentally friendly wet wash facility, vehicle modification and detailing shop.

Vans North West Becomes Maxus LDV Franchised Dealer for the Merseyside, West and South Lancashire, Cheshire and Greater Manchester: With one eye on the future of the Light Commercial Vehicle industry and the need to move forward with a Light Commercial Vehicle electric offering, Vans North West made a conscious decision to partner with SAIC Motor (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) who are a fortune 500 world corporation and the 6th largest vehicle manufacturer in the world, producing vehicles not only for their own brands, but building for popular vehicle brands like VW, Iveco and General Motors. SAIC Maxus is a Light Commercial Vehicle brand that offers the best battery range available on the market (at the time of writing), boasting vehicle ranges up to a very reliable and sensible 200 miles.

2018

2019
2019

Site Development: In 2019, Vans North West Ltd started plans to develop the site further to become the one-stop shop for Light Commercial Vehicles. Because the business had started to outgrow the existing buildings, the future development of the site was necessary to enable the future recruitment drive. Consequently, there were plans to re-develop the site to include a purpose-built Commercial Vehicle showroom to allow customers to come and browse in comfort while they are guided through the very real pitfalls of buying the correct Commercial Vehicle solution both for the job and the business accounts! The work was planned to commence in Spring 2020.

2020
2020

Covid: With the global pandemic came security. Vans North West Ltd were forced to delay plans for growth and delay plans to build the Commercial Vehicle showroom, choosing instead to preserve funds to ensure the business survived the pandemic, but more importantly, secured the jobs for all of the 18 staff employed at the time. Vans North West are proud of not having to lose one single member of staff during the pandemic and was able to support staff through the challenges of the time.

2021
2021

Vans North West Emerges from the Covid Pandemic in Good Shape: The start of 2021 brought with it an optimistic bounce back, intending to start work on the proposed vehicle showroom before Summer 2021 and with a plan to start 2 x nationwide Light Commercial Vehicle business Development Managers before Spring 2021.