FM Conway - Going the Extra Mile

Chapter 3 A New Start

I didn’t like being stuck for materials, especially at a time when business was growing so fast.

there was only one way to get them all in behind the bar, and still be able to close the gate after them. Our new yard was already looking a bit small.

In that same year, 1986, I picked up a job at Canary Wharf that was going to change the whole direction of the business, although I didn’t know it at the time. The job required a large amount of block paving, and at the contract meeting, the client asked if I could get the right supplies of concrete for the job. I said: ‘Yeah. At least I think so. Why do you ask?’ He replied: ‘Because I don’t think you can.’ And when I phoned Marshalls the following day, it turned out the client was right. Well, it so happened that, the same week, I saw an advert in The Financial Times for a concrete plant in Wales. The business, Caerleon Concrete, was in receivership and they were looking for a new owner. I didn’t like being stuck for materials, especially at a time when business was growing so fast. Our turnover was well over £3 million, our margins were good, and I was definitely interested. So, I got into a car with Jack Basch, Ron Woodland, and Sean Geraghty (my new Finance Director who had joined that year), and we drove to Caerphilly to talk to the Receivers. Caerleon Concrete wasn’t worth a lot of money, but the Receivers weren’t asking a huge amount for it either. And if it supplied the blocks I needed for my business in London, then it was going to be worth the money they were asking. But when we got to Caerphilly, we seemed to have entered some kind of blind auction. We were shown into a small room, and we were told that there was another room with another group of people in it. To this day, we don’t know if there really

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