ABRO Fleet Services, formerly the Army Base Repair Organisation, became a trading company in its own right in April 2002 and since then has been targeting public sector customers with a range of services based on its core competences, fleet maintenance.
In its former guise, ABRO supported the British Army's fleet of equipment for many years, a role it continues to perform today but, when the organisation was given commercial status, it looked for other sectors where specialist vehicles required maintenance.
The obvious targets were local authorities, airport fleets and the health care sectors. The original service offering was vehicle and service maintenance which quickly migrated to fleet management.
Within months of entering the market, ABRO Fleet Services picked up the fleet management contract for Stirling in Scotland, helped by the fact that it has a strategic repair depot in the locality. Under the contract, locally employed workers joined ABRO Fleet Services and became fully integrated into the workforce.
A similar contract has more recently been won to fleet manage the British Airport Authority's vehicles and plant at Edinburgh Airport. The work is being undertaken in one of Edinburgh Airport's workshops and again, a small of number staff have transferred across.
Maintenance & management
Fleet management is a competitive sector with five or six serious players and what ABRO Fleet Services has to offer it considers unique.
Unlike some of its competitors in the sector who come from a vehicle hire background, experience has been gained in providing a complete support package to the British Army both in peace time and during operational deployment. This has required its workforce of 2,500 to be well trained and extremely flexible.
Based on the limited time it has been present in the commercial fleet management market it has moved from vehicle maintenance to fleet management, providing the administrative support needed to manage the procurement and usage of equipment. The next step will be vehicle finance.
Its strategy is simple: to exploit as many opportunities as possible by developing relationships and working closely with other similar organisations that are predominantly close to its ten workshops located in Aldershot, Bicester, Bovington, Catterick, Colchester, Donnington, Edinburgh, Sennybridge, Stirling and Warminster.
Looking forward, the future appears extremely bright for ABRO Fleet Services. The dynamics of an ever-changing market place indicate great opportunities ahead. Capitalising on this is what will secure an exciting long-term future.
More information? Contact: Claire Lloyd-Hickey, Head of Corporate Communications, ABRO Fleet Services, Monxton Road, Andover, Hampshire, SP11 8HT. Tel: 01264 385799; Fax: 01264 385458.
E-mail: c.lloyd-Hickey@abro.mod.uk or visit the website: www.abro.co.uk
