Starting a business in order to reclaim professional satisfaction has proved to be a good formula for a truck body maker.
| Entrepreneur |
Tony Romano, Managing Director & Co-owner |
| Company |
Alltruck Bodies |
| Business type |
Manufacturer of specialist and general purpose rigid truck bodies |
| Founded |
1991 by Tony Romano & George Mitrousis |
| Employees |
85 |
| Head office |
Dandenong, Melbourne |
| Contact details |
+61 3 9791 2144 |
Key Learning Points |
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Finding staff
Internet employment sites attract a lot media attention, but your best source may be the local paper and ads in front of the business.
Business vision
What motivated you to start your business? Tony Romano disliked a workplace and decided to create a better one. That initial drive still influences his management.
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The Alltruck Story
Tony Romano shivers at the memory of those grim days at the end of the early 1990s recession. In 1991, he joined the ranks of unemployed when the truck body manufacturer he had worked for since leaving school went bankrupt. Romano found another job but he was not happy there. "Everyone was in it for themselves. Nobody worked as a team. I needed a job but I didn't need that."
After six months in the new job, Romano made a plucky proposal to his former work colleague, George Mitrousis: ‘Why not start our own company?' Romano had more than 10 years sales and administration experience; Mitrousis knew all about truck body production. Romano says: "It was impulsive but we were both excited. We didn't need to make a lot of money - just enough to pay the bills."
Romano leased a 700-square-metre factory and employed four staff . In September 1991, Alltruck Bodies began business. But the business soon faced a difficulty Romano hadn't anticipated: demand for Alltruck's product began to exceed its capacity to supply.
The Challenge
To manage rapid, unexpected growth.
The Solution
By 1994, Alltruck's orders had increased from four truck bodies per month to five per week. But lack of outside storage space was cramping the business's ability to meet orders on time. Romano persuaded his bank to back the purchase of a bigger site on which he built a custom-designed factory. That should have been enough. It wasn't.
Romano says Alltruck's strategy has been to sell on rugged good quality rather than price. More and more clients were ready to pay more upfront for a longer-lasting product. By 1998, orders had reached 10 per week and Romano bought more land over the road. But that led to OHS problems as workers negotiated crossing the busy road between the sites.
When orders reached 12-13 per week in 2001, Romano purchased Alltruck Bodies current 6700m2 site, which houses everything under one roof. In Melbourne's strong market for industrial land, the previous sites have proved to be good investments. They are now leased to other manufacturers.
As recession turned to boom, Romano faced a new problem: finding apprentices. "When the business began, there was a lot of choice and we could afford to be selective about employing staff." By 2003, an ad in the local newspaper attracted just two responses compared with eight years before when an ad for two apprentices attracted more than 50 applications.
In response to their staffing problems, Romano and Mitrousis hired their first general manager - Russell Gordon - in 2004. Gordon immediately focused on the apprenticeship program. He developed closer links with Kangan Batman TAFE by establishing an in-house training facility. This saved Alltruck's apprentices a weekly 90km round trip from Dandenong to Richmond in order to study.
Gordon contacts would-be apprentices' families. By learning about employees' individual backgrounds, he can tailor better jobs for them. Gordon says that keeping apprentices is always a challenge: "Few 18-year-olds are willing to commit to a four-year training program." But Alltruck's apprentice drop-out rate has decreased by 25% since Gordon began his highly personalised strategies.
Alltruck Bodies now has 15 apprentices compared with seven when Gordon started three years ago; he interviews new candidates every 6-8 weeks. Where does he find his apprentices? Gordon says his best sources have been ads in the local newspaper (with a distribution of no more than a 10km radius) and by displaying a simple A-frame board on Alltruck's busy street frontage. "This often attracts the attention of parents who drive past and pop in to pick up an application form for their son."
Romano - remembering the place he left to start Alltruck - has tried to create an open, responsive workplace. Monthly safety meetings are preceded by a general meeting at which employees can air any concerns. Apprentices can do this via their supervisor or in person. Romano believes that his direct, personal involvement in the business makes employees feel comfortable about approaching him with any problems or ideas.
The Result
Alltruck Bodies has 85 staff at facilities in Melbourne and Brisbane. Its output is now 20-25 truck bodies a week and turnover for 2006-07 exceeded $20 million. Romano expects turnover to double in the next five years.
In 2006, Alltruck Bodies won The Age/D&B Victorian Business Award for Manufacturing. It has been nominated for the Dandenong Regional Business Award, which is announced in March 2008.