Crash cushion success for Blakedale

Self-drive hire specialist Blakedale is celebrating record sales and growth after successfully launching a new service in response to customer demand.

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 to buy we knew there was an opportunity here to improve our overall service.”

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

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

Family business Blakedale was launched in 1999 following the sale of Carmen’s father’s business Fred Smith Street Lighting to the McAlpine Group.