Blakedale News

As traffic safety specialists we are celebrating record sales and growth after successfully launching a new service in response to customer demand.

We are a multi-million pound business which hires impact protection vehicles to local authorities and roadwork operators on a self drive basis across the UK and have responded to the needs of the market and diversified into building bespoke new vehicles for customers to buy.

Our joint Managing Director Carmen Bowley said: “We hire out these vehicles and they never seem to come back. When customers then started to approach us to build vehicles specifically for them we knew there was an opportunity here.”

Based in Chorley, our business started out manufacturing motorway marker posts and over the last 15 years since our inception we have thrived by listening to the needs of the industry and adapting and diversifying into related products and services.

With turnover up 40% in the last year and plans to increase by a further 30% again in the next 12 months it is certainly proving to be a shrewd move.

Carmen added: “When we decided to buy our first crash cushion it was a bit of a gamble really, it was during a meeting when a client mentioned that they might soon need new safety provisions when installing our marker posts.

From there the fuse was lit - we did our homework and subsequently purchased our first crash cushion.

Now we have 150 vehicles out on hire. We were one of the first specialist self drive hire companies and now we are keeping ahead of the game by responding to potential legislation and adapting and evolving our vehicles to exceed guidelines.”

As a family business, we launched in 1999 following the sale of Carmen’s Father’s business Fred Smith Street Lighting to the McAlpine Group.

Carmen started off literally making the marker posts by hand and has since grown the business and diversified along with her brothers Operations Director Richard Smith and Finance Director Jonathan Smith.

In addition to marker posts and impact protection vehicles we also hire out self contained welfare units for workforce crews on site. Our team of 11 office and engineering staff operate from our Mill Lane head office in Chorley.