Straining at the leash

These may be busy times for hauliers countrywide but competition among the sector has never been as intense. Little wonder then that a combination of hard work and diligence is the name of the game down Banbridge way as Brendan Strain of Eagle Overseas in Co. Down informs us.

The prodigious growth of Eagle Overseas is not something Managing Director Brendan Strain is prepared to wax lyrical about. He’s too long in the haulage business to tempt fate!

Seeing turnover increase, year on year, and demand for his firm’s services multiply with the sort of consistency so redolent of a tiger economy, Brendan is rightly proud of his Banbridge crew. However, caution remains the buzzword in and around the 53 Moss Road, Banbridge, Co Down premises.

Ten years ago, the family-run firm employed just 12 people. There’s now 23 workers on board the Good Ship Eagle Overseas. So what’s the team’s secret formula?

“There’s no secret at all. Rather it’s all about hard work . We have given a good service to our customers down the years and we’ve reacted in a positive manner to whatever changes have occurred in the marketplace,” Brendan explains.

In a hugely competitive market, Eagle Overseas has proven itself to be a stoical player and one which has risen to the challenges presented to it on a daily basis.

Perhaps, the fact that the company is very much a close-knit concern helps the sense of purpose inherent in the company, because there’s an obvious sense of unity and conviction about Eagle Overseas.
Significantly, quite a number of the company’s current employees have been with the Strain family since Eagle Overseas was founded some 18 years ago.

For instance, Brendan’s three sons all hold down key positions within the company with Daniel, John and Adrian acting out the roles of Transport, Sales/Customer Care, and Fleet Management respectively.

That said, every member of the Moss Road team is an experienced, hands-on type, dedicated to giving the customer the top quality service he wants and when he wants it. Brendan Strain, M.D. comments: “Customers want their goods the very next day, on time. They don’t want their money tied up in the warehouse. The trend now is stocking to order. Customers order today and want it delivered tomorrow.

“There’s more and more pressure on hauliers to see that their goods are delivered on time. However, we’re well positioned in that regard because we have a 24 hour depot which allows us to load up in the evening and begin our deliveries in the morning.”
Brendan accepts that these are ultra-competitive times for hauliers in general.

The hands-on boss concedes that even express deliveries, international groupage, storage and distribution specialists like Eagle Overseas have to make sure that they are lean and fit to weather the ravages of an unpredictable marketplace.

“The more difficult market conditions become, the harder we work. That’s the way we have to approach our business otherwise we’d only be running to stand still. We have to make sure that we run a tight ship and remain focused on what we have to do to maintain, if not build upon, the level of custom we have at present.

“Unfortunately, it’s becoming increasingly harder to secure the sort of margins that you’d wish to achieve; even getting the same return for the same work we did a few years ago is difficult.”

Nevertheless, Brendan describes 2000 as having been a good year for Eagle Overseas and while the rising cost of fuel, wages, insurance and the extraordinary strength of sterling - which causes specific problems for them in relation to the Dublin market - continues to present difficulties for Eagle Overseas, the affable Managing Director says by sticking at what his firm does best and adding to the expert service they already provide, the company can continue to enjoy a fair share of the market.

Benefiting from a burgeoning degree of custom from discerning clients throughout Ireland and the UK, Eagle Overseas hauls “anything that moves.”

All things are carried by Eagle Overseas, all distances in these islands. The company’s peerless international groupage service sees it deliver every type of product for such as those in the chemical, computer, medical, pharmaceutical, engineering and construction industries via depots managed by business partners at Heathrow, Essex, Oxfordshire, Manchester, Bradford and Glasgow.

With a mixed fleet of fifteen vehicles consisting of 38 tonne, 17 tonne, 7.5 tonne and 3.5 tonne trucks, Eagle Overseas has the capacity to take on any job, large or small.

In addition the company recently installed the most up to date transport computing system which allows us log in data in relation to our warehousing and while also keeping track of the movement of our goods.
If you want to link up with a company which believes in being transparent and is going places, why not call Eagle Overseas at Banbridge 02840651311