Management services provider PVS Group, which provides a cradle to grave advisory and management service, is seeking further growth as the company, founded by 30-year fleet veteran Marcus Puddy, moves into its fifth year of business.
From its embryonic foundations delivering fleet consultancy with a difference, including recommendation implementation, in-life management and fleet decision-maker training, PVS Group now employs nine people and operates across four divisions:
PVS Group currently manages around 1,200 company cars and commercial vehicles and through its four channels ‘touches’ more than 9,000 units.
Mr Puddy, whose career background is as a fleet manager and director of a major contract hire and leasing company, said: “In the next five years I would like PVS Group to be managing about 6,000-7,000 vehicles and be the ‘go to’ business for consultancy and funding requirements.
“We are a boutique fleet supplier and I want PVS Group to grow organically with a reputation for delivering bespoke services to clients. The company offers a range of services and solutions and clients can select what they want from the portfolio.”
PVS Group has expanded away from its consultancy heartland due to customer demand for other services.
Mr Puddy said: “Initial consultancy led to customers wanting PVS Group to become their fleet manager. That led to calls for the company to assist with vehicle funding and so the business has grown due to client demand for the supply of additional services and solutions.
“Client demand has driven PVS Group growth to the extent that not everything we are presently involved in is fleet and vehicle related. The business, for example, will fund anything except bricks and mortar, and that has included IT infrastructure and even a steam train in addition to cars, vans, HGVs, trailers, buses and coaches.”
Explaining the success of PVS Group with its focus on small to medium-sized business with fleets running from a handful to up to 300-400 vehicles, Mr Puddy said: “Many contract hire and leasing companies have grown so large that customers feel they are simply a number and the personal touch no longer exists. Funders, in many cases, have grown so large that once vehicles have been financed they leave lessees to fend for themselves.”
He continued: “PVS Group will fund a vehicle, arrange and manage any conversion and fit-out work and then deliver it ready for use. Most finance brokers will not do that and leave fleets to make the arrangements.”
Experiencing significant three-figure year-on-year turnover growth since launch – including more than doubling revenue last year – PVS Group is a finalist in the 2019 Somerset Business Awards run annually by the Somerset Chamber of Commerce. Taking place on October 25 at the Winter Gardens Pavilion in Weston-super-Mare, the company is one of three shortlisted in the Small Business of the Year category.
Mr Puddy concluded: “To be shortlisted is a brilliant accolade. I have been surprised and delighted at how PVS Group has developed over the last four years and I continue to enjoy every minute. We are, and will remain, a boutique business and supplier in terms of what we do and our customers tell us we deliver.”
Join Somerset Chamber of Commerce to give your business a stronger voice both locally, regionally and nationally. Combined with local town chambers, we represent over 2,000 businesses across Somerset with a direct line to policy-makers at all levels.
