Bill Bennett Engineering Limited

house. They would help with telephone messages and lend that valuable hand on those jobs which couldn’t be managed by one person. Later in that first year the first permanent employee was taken on, that was Bill Harris who lived in the bungalow next to Horton Social Club. Bill worked for the company for almost 20 years before taking his well-earned retirement. His contribution to the company was considerable, working long hours in those early days helping to build up the business. Because of problems using Crowshall Barn for repair work without planning permission the business was forced to move out in 1970, a move which might have ended this young company had it not been for the understanding and help given by Mr Bert Lewington in working out a financial solution enabling us to move to the premises which had just been vacated by F. Lewington & Sons, a very long standing and respected local building Company. With the help of these new premises and the support from local farmers the business grew and in 1973 it employed seven people and had a turnover of £15,000.00. In 1974 the company was appointed as the importer of the Fendt tractors from West Germany, a move which brought mixed feeling. On the plus side was the marvellous opportunity this offered to further expand the company, but on the negative side was the extreme pressure it put on a young inexperienced management team. Fortunately with long hours and many nights away from home we managed to cope with the new business of setting up a dealer network throughout the UK with only minor hiccups none of which proved fatal for the company. During this time it became apparent that to sell these west German tractors in the UK we needed a different hitching system to that used by the German farmers, at first these hitches were made by another company but because of problems and poor quality the decision was made to make these hitches ourselves. This was the start of the manufacturing side of the company which still today supplies Fendt with all their pick-up hitches for world distribution. It became apparent in 1976, the year the company also became limited, that the premises were too small causing problems in terms of efficiency for the company and inconvenience to everyone using Sodbury Road. It was decided to apply to the Planning Authority for permission to build new premises. A number of options were considered and after nearly five fraught years, in June 1981 we eventually obtained permission to develop the site where the company is today. On 29th July 1982 these new premises were formally opened by the late Duke of Beaufort. At this time the company was employing seventeen people. Later the old premises adjoining Mountain Ash was converted into a training school where we were able to train both sales and service staff in the product knowledge for the products we sold. In 1988 the company employed thirty nine people ten of whom lived in Horton and a further twelve that lived locally and the turnover had grown to over five million pounds which was generated by sales and repairs of tractors, agricultural and garden machinery and of course by the expanding manufacturing department who was exporting to Iceland, Austria, Germany, Australia and soon to France, Holland and all Scandanavian countries. Because of this growth in the manufacturing business, we applied for and obtained planning permission to build a new production hall in 1990. In the beginning of 1991 due to many reasons all of which were beyond our control and connected with the unification of East and West Germany, the decision was made by a new Export Director at Fendt, to terminate their agreement with us as Importer in favour of a company which was owned by the East German bank who also owned an implement manufacturing company in East Germany. This was a devastating blow to the business because 85% of the turnover was being generated by this part of the business. At the time we were employing 48 members of staff many of whom had been with the company for many years, half of these people would have to go. The half that stayed had to accept that the company was going to alter dramatically, not least of all from being a respected Importing and Distribution company known throughout the UK doing most of it’s turnover through a large Dealer network, to being a small local retail dealer operating only in the immediate area. New Dealerships were found and established to maintain enough turnover to keep the business going but all this had to be done while the country was in the deepest recession since the 1930’s. It was a long hard battle and the direction of the business had to be changed and it was important that no one franchise held by the business could cause such disruption as experienced by losing the Fendt sales business. One of the new importing franchises taken was for the Dutch made Kooi-Aap truck mounted forklifts. Kooi was a family owned business which had just lost its UK importer through bankruptcy and a strong business relationship was quickly formed between our two companies and this gave us a good opportunity to once again expand our sales on a national basis. This business with Kooi continued until 2003 when due to the Dutch company being bought by a Finnish company who also owned our main competitor in the truck mounted forklift market, decided to amalgamate the two businesses and handle the newly formed company through their own marketing organisation. But when one door closes often another opens and when the news regarding the demise of the Kooi-Aap products in the UK was known, an Austrian company called Palfinger contacted us and an agreement was quickly reached for us to be their importer for their truck mounted forklifts. Today the company has the two profit centres, manufacturing (mainly hitch systems for tractors and telehandlers) and the importing, distribution and after-sales servicing of the Palfinger truck mounted forklifts. It currently employ 32 people and the Palfinger truck mounted forklifts have gained 2nd position in the market and the manufacturing company supplies four large international companies with OE products as well as supplying product through main dealers.