Volvo dealer Truck & Bus Cymru's journey to becoming Pembrokeshire's largest private employer

Volvo’s commercial vehicle network is undergoing something of an identity transformation. The privately owned outlets are gradually being renamed to reflect the Volvo brand. The independent dealerships form a significant proportion of that network, with 11 companies in the UK and Ireland working alongside two wholly-owned businesses.

One of the most recent to undergo the transformation is the dealership within the Mansel Davies Group, whose 300 staff make it the largest private sector employer in Pembrokeshire. Covering a remote area in west Wales from its base at Llanfyrnach, near Cardigan, the business will henceforth be known as Truck & Bus Cymru, and we used the rebranding to warrant a trip there to bring the story up to date.

The newly rebranded dealership has recently celebrated 40 years with the Volvo franchise, with Isuzu servicing the lighter end of the truck range. Under its new managing director Scott Davies, the day-to-day sales operation remains in the safe hands of Wayne Delve. The nature of the Truck & Bus Cymru customer base means that Delve has to work harder than most. The situation hasn’t been helped by much of the Pembrokeshire port business moving to the expanding Avonmouth area. While many of his equivalents elsewhere can specify one vehicle configuration that may be replicated many times over, most of his deals are often for singletons, which demand the same effort. A big deal for Delve is five or six.

That doesn’t mean that there are no big names in his Filofax. His largest single customer is Oil4Wales, whose 50-plus fleet comprises about 80% Volvo. Another significant customer is Castell Howell, currently expanding its food distribution with Volvo FH tractors. The sales operation’s biggest challenge by far remains its supply chain. While the manufacturer situation is gradually returning to normal, the bodybuilder story is proving much slower. Although tippers and milk tankers are getting better, fuel tanker supply remains concerning. Having exhausted his full allocation of Volvos for every quarter of 2023, Delve is hopeful that 2024 should be back to the levels of 2018 and 2019, maybe returning soon to its peak of 70 deliveries in a year.

- This article was first published in the 25 January issue of Commercial Motor.