Brand name emerges from past to revitalise the future

May 28 2008 by Alistair Houghton, Liverpool Daily Post

Alistair Houghton meets DAVID LINDFIELD, managing director of Sovex

DAVID LINDFIELD retrieved the Sovex name from the bottom drawer of history – and his Wirral company is now reaping the dividends.

Lindfield was managing director of the original Sovex business, known throughout the logistics industry for its parcel-handling equipment.

When Sovex was bought out, Lindfield was part of the new Caljan management team that abandoned the famous old brand.

“The Sovex name had been going for many years,” he said. “Caljan bought Sovex out because it was competition.

“We kept the name in the bottom drawer, kept it locked, and renewed the patent every year.”

But, years later, his new Wirral company saw the chance to resurrect the Sovex name for its new range of parcel handling equipment.

Today Sovex, of Prenton, is a leading player in the logistics industry. It repairs and refurbishes existing equipment – including some from the original Sovex – and offers a range of vehicle loaders and conveyors.

Lindfield said: “Even though, in parcel handling, the people we’re talking about are on the scale of DHL and UPS, little old us is dealing with them because it’s a niche market.

“We’re now bidding for contracts worth a couple of million each.

“We’re just doing conveyors for DHL at East Midlands Airport, which is a contract we won against big competition.

“A lot of experienced people in the industry are saying ‘Sovex are back’. The industry’s young bucks are saying ‘who the hell are Sovex?’ Very high-level questions are being asked about who we are.”

Sovex employed just four people in 2002, but now employs 37. Its annual turnover in the same period has risen from £300,000 to approaching £5m.

Lindfield, whose family hails from Hoylake, started his career as an apprentice at Lucas, in Fazakerley. He spent 17 years there as a project engineer.

Next he was approached by the Nottingham-based Sovex group to become its production manager. He and his family moved to the East Midlands, where they spent another 17 years.

Sovex had been founded more than 80 years earlier, but Lindfield said it was already in decline when he arrived.

He said: “The reason it was in decline was that it had tried to do too much. They did some really good products but they were stretching themselves. The products weren’t making any money.

“It was a Dickensian outfit, well-established with lovely people, but it needed some changes. I went in, we lost a lot of dead wood, brought in new people, and became very successful.

“That’s where Caljan came in and bought us.”

Caljan soon took the decision to drop the Sovex name – a decision Lindfield says disappointed some customers.

Lindfield became Caljan’s UK managing director, running a business employing 120 people and with a turnover of £9m.

But, by 2002, Lindfield felt it was time to move on from Caljan, which was closing its Nottingham plant and moving production to Denmark.

Rather than staying at the helm of a UK sales operation, Lindfield returned to his Wirral home turf to work as a consultant.

But within a month he was receiving phone calls from old industry contacts asking if he could supply them with new or refurbished equipment.

Lindfield saw a gap in the market for a medium-sized operator and realised he was well-placed to fill it.

HE SAID: “What happens is you’ve got guys who can weld – who can make a barrier rail or a platform. Those small operators are all over the place.

“If you want a fully-automated parcel-handling system, you’ve got people like Siemens or FKI – the really big guys.

“What was lacking was something in the middle, where people wanted systems costing £100,000 or £200,000. The small operators didn’t have the experience and the larger operators said no.

“That’s where the arm-twisting from clients came from. Because I’d been so long in the industry, I was able to re-establish relationships and friendships.”

Lindfield’s old contacts soon came to the fore when he was able to buy and refurbish a stock of equipment from Caljan customer Parcelforce.

“Parcelforce had 104 depots but went down to 54,” he said. “They had a large amount of equipment up for grabs. We bought it, refurbished it and sold it. That’s how we started.”

Lindfield started the business, then called Spryte Systems, with “silent partner” Richard Bateson, who still owns 10% of the company.

Soon after, Malcolm Dooley, a former senior colleague at Caljan, came on board and is today operations director. Lindfield bought the Sovex name in 2004 and renamed the company after the brand.

Sovex has kept a low profile for its first few years as it has built up its business, but it has recently launched a new website and is now advertising for the first time. Lindfield says Sovex is now ready to expand in the UK and overseas.

He said: “We’ve been lucky that the people we’ve known before have bought from us.

“Recently we’ve been dealing with people like GeoPost – people we’ve never worked with before.”

It has recently signed a partnership deal with Dutch firm Van Riet where each company will promote the other’s products and services in their respective countries.

Sovex, which already sells to Germany, the Czech Republic and Portugal, is also exhibiting at this week’s CeMAT logistics trade fair, in Germany, as it seeks more European contracts.

Sovex already has some parts of its products made in China, and hopes to win new business in the country as its multi-national clients expand their operations there.

Lindfield says the company is planning to continue its strong and steady growth, with a turnover target of £8m for next year.

He says he is expecting steel costs to keep rising, but says the increasing move towards mail order and internet shopping means the home delivery market remains strong – and delivery firms need vehicle loaders to get parcels into their vans.

“In the parcel handling business, between the likes of DHL, UPS and ParcelForce, competition is cut-throat,” he said.

Lindfield says the Covex brand has been well-received by customers old and new. The name has been trademarked in the UK and China.

“Everybody in the parcel-handling industry knows who we are,” he said.

“In some parts of the industry, people identify their conveyor by the name Sovex, rather than just a conveyor. It’s been great to bring the name back.”

alistairhoughton