Traffic management vehicle specialist Blakedale has reported a strong first 12 months of trading since being acquired by Northgate last summer.

The Chorley-based business has seen its vehicle fleet, customer base, revenues, head count and assembly facility all grow during the year.

The company said that it had grown its fleet by 49.7% to over 500 vehicles in just 12 months, aided by an active UK highways sector.

Blakedale has also seen revenues rise by 50% in line with fleet and customer growth. Meanwhile the overall headcount has grown to 40 colleagues with technician numbers doubling to cope with the growth in Impact Protection Vehicle (IPV) assembly and repairs.

The company has taken on an additional industrial unit next to its current 20,000 square foot facility in Matrix Park, Chorley where it is establishing a new parts office, storage, and HGV servicing area to support its IPV assembly line and repair businesses. The unit has also freed up more space to grow its road marker post business.

Managing director Jon Taylor, who joined the company in July last year, has also overseen a fleet expansion and reconfiguration which has seen the company increase its offering to five different vehicle types based on customer needs.

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These include traffic management safety cars, electric car derived vans, crew vans, 3.5-tonne Light Truck Mounted Attenuator (LTMA) urban crash cushion vehicles and 3.5 and 7.2-tonne traffic management vehicles.

Taylor said: “We have seen our trading customer base rise 40% by rolling out our services to Northgate’s existing fleet customers and gaining new accounts.

“We have expanded our fleet accordingly and have a strong order bank of several hundred new vehicles. The fleet expansion has led to a number of customers trialing cars, vans and trucks for the very first time.

He added: “It has been a positive 12 months. We have invested in and delivered growth across all areas of the business while retaining Blakedale’s excellent reputation in the traffic management sector.

“We have also bolstered our team with the appointment of Tony Richards as our new head of fleet operations who has joined operations director Gareth Brown and sales director Dave Staiano in the leadership team. The business is well set to capitalise on the continued growth of the highways and traffic management sectors,” Taylor said.

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