It’s been an incredible first year for a Bridgend-headquartered start up. Oliver Lewis and Paul Ricketts launched Hawkstone Commercials in March 2022 and have since experienced enormous growth in the commercial vehicle supply sector.
Since they began trading, Oliver and Paul have opened their first office, employed six members of staff, and have supplied over 300 new vehicles to businesses across the UK, generating over £1.6 million in sales revenue.
As well as exceeding sales projections, they won ‘Most Trusted Commercial Vehicle Supplier – Wales’ at the SME News Business Growth Excellence Awards 2022 and were a finalist for ‘Start-up Business of the Year’ at the South Wales Business Awards 2022.
“When we first sat around a kitchen table back in January, we put together a detailed business plan on what we thought we could achieve in 2022. We knew what the challenges were and how tough vehicle supply was, so we had our reservations on how successful we would be in our first year,” said Oliver.
With 2022 nearly behind them, Hawkstone Commercials have set out their objectives for the upcoming year and have not held back on their aspirations.
Oliver said “We have worked hard over the past 9 months to put processes and systems in place to help everyone become more effective in their role. We recently signed the lease to our second office that we believe will be full of staff before the summer. We are currently in the middle of a recruitment drive and have interviews running nearly every day to find the right people to do the jobs we need. We have developed partnerships with some of the leading vehicle suppliers in the UK for us to be able to double our orders in 2023.”
When asked about stock shortages and vehicle supply, Oliver said “We haven’t really seen the impact of the stock shortages as we have only been advertising vehicles we can physically sell. We’re aware of the various supply issues, but have already secured 200 units for quarter one, and have more in the pipeline for the remainder of the year”
Oliver and Paul plan to add a further 8 employees to their growing team in 2023 across a variety of roles that include sales and administration.