IN this week's SME Focus we hear from a family-owned firm that took a successful change of direction after getting some fresh insight into strategic issues.

Name:

Douglas Lothian

Age:

50.

What is your business called?

Len Lothian Limited trading as Len's Self Storage.

What service do you provide?

A wide range of secure self-storage lockers and larger spaces. We also provide vans with drivers to help move materials into storage.

Personal Storage is used predominately for the storage of household items between selling and purchasing a new home. Commercial Storage is used pretty much by the full range of SME's storing items such as archive documents, stock, marketing materials and system furniture.

Len's Self Storage also offers Removals, Palletised Storage and Stock Management.

Where is it based?

Edinburgh and Glasgow, at five separate locations.

Who does it sell to?

We have a broad range of customers coming from large, medium and small enterprises to the public sector and domestic customers. However, this also represents a challenge as there is not one particular sector that definitively requires the services we offer between so we have to try and spread our marketing message really quite wide.

What is its turnover?

£2.5 million.

How many employees?

27, including two directors.

When was it formed?

1964

Why did you take the plunge?

The company was formed by our late father, Len Lothian. My brother Alistair and I have been working with the firm full time since 1990. Our father said he hoped he had created a platform for us to be able to build a much bigger and more successful business. I think this was a challenge we both found exciting. Our father died in 1992, by which time the company name was well know in its sector.

What were you doing before you took the plunge?

Len Lothian Ltd have always been involved in warehousing but up until 1993 the company also operated a plant hire company specialising in hiring out cranes, fork lift trucks and carrying out specialist machinery movement. I worked for this part of the company on leaving school for a number of years during the 1980's and then spent three years working for a crane hire company based in London, gaining good experience, before returning to run the crane and fork lift truck hire company in Edinburgh.

What was your biggest break?

In 1992 we recognised we could do with some strategic advice and took on a non-executive director John Smithson. At the time the Len Lothian Group was made up of three separate companies involved in warehousing, plant hire and machinery movement. John pointed out we were pretty much the smallest player in all the markets we were operating in and a big player will always beat a little one. Should we consider trying to operate a business in one sector of the market with the view to becoming the market leader? This coincided with another internal conversation based around the new storage concept of self storage, which my brother Alistair had seen in Australia during a year's walk-about.

It was decided that self storage represented the best opportunity for the business going forward and as a result, the plant hire side of the business was sold and the proceeds invested in launching Len Lothian Self Storage in 1994. This has proved very successful for us.

What do you most enjoy about running the business?

In running a relatively small business we get exposed to the whole variety of jobs and roles through out the working week, which can be both challenging and interesting. Working at Len Lothian is also a fun place to be with some great banter amongst the staff.

What do you least enjoy?

As joint directors, we both hire and from time to time fire! Firing is not great for either party.

What are your ambitions for the firm?

By 2008 the company had grown from one site in 1994 to five. However, during the recession we did experience quite a tough environment and the focus changed from expansion to survival with turnover falling by £500,000 over a two year period. In response we went through a pretty vigorous cost cutting exercise which unfortunately also included three redundancies, but no change to the number of sites we operate from.

Since then there has also been an increase in competition and it has been quite a challenge trying to get back to the turnover level of £3 million we recorded in 2007. Over the past seven years we have seen many false dawns, winning significant new contracts only for others to come naturally to an end. In 2014 we may have seen the tide begin to turn with turnover beginning to record a sustained month on month increase. However, in the current environment it's hard to forecast what 2015 holds.

Our immediate focus continues to be on pushing up our sales we are currently going through a rebranding exercise from Len Lothian U-Store to Len's Self Storage. The new website is now in place and we are currently working on the rebranding of our receptions and building signage. Going forward we hope to maintain our market leadership and to do so we will be considering relocating some of our current facilities over the next few years to more high profile locations.

What are your top priorities?

The continual updating of our business plans to ensure the continued expansion of the business, relocation to more convenient site locations and broadening our customer base being our immediate priorities.

What was the most valuable lesson that you have learned?

In our size of business, probably the importance of speaking to employees directly rather than relying purely on written communication, although this is also important. The example I would give is every year we put a big effort into outlining our objectives for the year ahead and this is communicated via various planning documents but we also back this up with meeting all the staff individually to really ensure they comprehend both the plan and their part in it being successful. We also know as an organisation we need to speak to our customers as often as possible to make sure we are providing them with the solutions they really need.

How do you relax?

I am very luck in that my wife Kay's family have a farm near Blackford, Perthshire where they breed Aberdeen Angus cattle. They have fenced off strips of land between the neighbouring farms to maintain the health status of their herd where they allow us to plant trees. I can think of nothing better than being out doors with our wee dog planting some trees.