Transport company criticises banks during the recession

A transport company from Billingham has criticised the banking sector for their dearth of support during the recession, despite riding the downturn and emerging as an even more robust business. Nicholson's Transport was moved to sell assets in order to survive and grow, as the banks offered no support, but the gutsy move paid dividends as they reversed the trend in the rest of the logistics industry by enticing new clients as well as garnering some substantial contracts. They took the decision to sell company owned property and then lease it back, in order to fund the difficult times. Dave Nicholson, the owner and founder of the company, was dismayed by the attitude of the banks during the darkest time for British businesses for more than a generation. He agrees with Chancellor George Osborne, who declared that banks had an obligation to lend to small businesses. Nicholson said:

This business has been through three recessions, but this one was so different in that the banks just shut up shop – despite what their PR teams were saying. We had been planning to restructure since 2007 and needed funding to achieve that, but the banks were extremely reluctant to lend against property and certainly didn’t want to hear from logistics firms. We have delivered the restructure despite the banks saying we wouldn’t survive past last December. They didn’t want to understand our strategy for moving forward, but we have achieved that regardless and paid back all bank borrowings. The recession has had a devastating impact on the logistics sector, with many firms going under, but there was no way we were going to roll over. We have actually come out far stronger, with each of our companies independent and more client focused.

As a result of their restructuring, the Nicholson Group now has transport and logistics enterprises in Doncaster and on Teesside, specialising in storage and Hiab cranes respectively. Nicholson feels he has taken many lesson from the recession, saying, The main lesson we have learned is to not have too many financial eggs in one basket. In future, we won’t have a situation where we rely too much on one funder, or indeed rely on banks at all. Instead, we are spreading our risks and improving our relationships with different banks, and looking at alternative funding methods.