When we last spoke with the racing driver and CEO of the Collard Group, Robert Collard, he told us the secret to winning in both roles. “Success in sport and in business are both rooted in the same principles,” he said.
Former British GT and Touring Car champion Collard argued that bringing motor sports’ values of preparation, discipline and teamwork into a business and instilling those values in your people gives them the passion, drive, and ambition necessary to succeed. As Collard Group celebrates its 30th anniversary, it is not hard to see the truth in his argument. The company is one of the leading national demolition contractors in the country and one of the largest privately owned waste management businesses in the south. It has become a one-stop-shop for developers, civil engineering companies and main contractors.
“They know that when they instruct us to do a job, we will do everything in-house,” Collard tells us today. “We own all of our equipment, a fleet of diggers, crushers, and skips, and we provide everything from demolition to bulk excavation, to hazardous material removal, while offering aggregates, ready-mix concrete, muck away, everything.”
If that sounds like a lot, it looks like even more compared to where Collard started. 34 years ago, Robert Collard went into business as a sole trader, working as a mechanic on diggers and lorries.
“I started with nothing more than a box of spanners, but I built a good reputation by fixing trucks and diggers that nobody else would,” Collard recalls. “Later, I bought my first lorry, an MOT failure which I rapidly repaired and got roadworthy. Then my first digger was an old JCB that I found on a farm, with a seized-up engine that I bought a replacement for from a scrap yard.”
With this new equipment at his disposal, Collard found work helping to build part of the M3 motorway, launching a journey to growth that soon saw the business grow big enough that Collard was advised to establish a limited company.
Lessons of Growth
From there, the newly founded R Collard Ltd branched into the demolition sector and began to build momentum, growing to a fleet of five lorries, five diggers and a million-pound turnover in its first year. Today, Collard informs us the Group has a turnover of £70 million.
But 30 years and £69 million of growth do not happen without learning a thing or two.
“As the company grows it takes a lot of foresight and strategy to manage. When you are a small business, you tend to fix the problem directly in front of you,” Collard says. “The lesson I have learned is to plan far enough ahead. Often with a growing company what fixes the problem this year becomes the problem next year.”
Collard points to how many times the company has relocated offices to accommodate its growing staff.
The firm employs 420 people directly, as well as up to 100 agency staff across its recycling depots and demolition contracts and 50 staff at Collard Group’s head office.
“Five years ago, we built a new head office to cater for 45 people, and I never thought we’d fill it,” Collard says. “Today it’s looking like we already need more space.”
Strategic Growth
Collard Group today operates three distinct operating divisions; demolition and enabling, total waste management, and its products business selling premium recycled aggregates and ready mix concrete. This transformation restructure coincided with the rebrand from R Collard Ltd to Collard Group, reflecting the growth journey from sole trader to today including the diversification of the business, both organically and through acquisition.
Robert Collard’s foresight has led the Group to move from demolition and enabling to both domestic and commercial total waste management, and award-winning recycled products for the construction industry. He has anticipated trends ranging from the focus on sustainability to the urgent need for domestic skips driven by lockdown-fuelled home improvement projects while large construction projects ground to a halt.
To aid in that strategy Collard has made acquisitions to diversify its capabilities to include specialist functions like hazardous materials management services and grow its footprint into one of the largest privately owned waste business in the South of the country.
“Making acquisitions has long been a part of our strategy to grow the business,” he says. “Even now we have a major strategic acquisition we are actively looking at. Providing the economy gets a little stronger, we have manoeuvred ourselves to be in a very good position for future growth.”
Indeed, as the company celebrates its 30th anniversary, Collard is already looking to its next major milestone, achieving a £100 million turnover. But that is only one of his ambitions. Continuing his commitment to Collard Group’s people, Collard wants to put another 30 apprentices through the business by 2030.
And he expects many of the company’s current staff to be there to see these targets happen. Long service awards are almost routine at Collard Group, with many of its people serving for more than 10, 15 or even 25 years. That low turnover in a labour market where the workforce will often shop around reflects the great working environment Collard Group has built, but it is also a reflection of Robert Collard’s own hands-on attitude towards steering his business.
“I visit our sites regularly, often out of hours because I simply haven’t got enough hours in the day,” Collard says. “It is surprising how much you can see when the site is closed compared to the bustle of when it is working. I like to be operational, and the key managers and directors we have brought into the business have that same ethos. They will get their hands dirty if necessary.”
For the next 30 years, Collard Group’s vision remains unchanged. The company will continue to offer a closed-loop proposition that promotes the circular economy and the goal of zero-waste-to-landfill. It will also continue to deliver as many of its services and products as possible in-house, to maintain a healthy cost base and control its exceptional quality standards.
Collard will continue his strategy of acquiring expertise and assets across the industry to meet the rapidly changing needs of the Group’s customers, investing profits back into the business to unlock innovation.
But most importantly, Collard will continue to invest in its people to ensure they receive the training, career development, benefits, and recognition they deserve.
