However, her incredible journey has not been an easy one, starting a business from scratch in a very male dominated world, she has fought to take her business to the top, revolutionising distribution in this country in the process. Along the way there she has made sacrifices, faced incredible odds and experienced untold personal hardships including suffering a stroke earlier in the year. A truly inspirational woman!
meeting hilary devey
This week i was given the oppurtunity to go to Derbyshire and help film an interview with Hilary Devey. Hilary Devey is a British award winning businesswoman, television personality, entrepreneur, commentator who made her fortune launching Pall-Ex, a palletised freight network that has annual revenues of more than £100 million and revolutionised the pallet distribution industry in the UK. Devey is also a regular on the public speaking circuit. She has also has featured in television programmes including Channel 4's Secret Millionaire in 2008. She gained national acclaim by donating more than £250,000 to the Back Door Music Project and the Syke Community Centre. She later appeared on The Business Inspector on Channel 5 in March 2010. The latter was a four-part series that saw her use her business acumen and expertise by helping transform struggling small businesses into successful profitable companies. She helped their owners improve their customer service, cash flow and marketing strategies. In February 2011, Devey joined the panel on BBC Two's business programme Dragons' Den following the departure of former "dragon" James Caan. Her house in Derbyshire was enourmous and there we also met her son and house keepers. The interview was mainly about her success with pal-ex and how she thought of the idea. She was very calm in front of the camera, you could tell she had done this before. We spent several hours at her house and enjoyed the hospitality of her house keepers. The day didnt seem like work, which i beleive is the sign of a good job. Challenging but doesnt seem like a choir.
This is the house she lives in!!
Q - What was your background?
Hilary – "A publican’s daughter born in Bolton, her career has always been in logistics working for companies such as Littlewood’s, Tibbett and Britten, Scorpio (part of the United Carrier network) and TNT, where she worked her way up the ladder into management."
Q - How did you start your Business?
Hilary – "After over hearing a conversation in a traffic office, the pallet concept came to me. I recognised there was a niche in the market that had not been tapped into. I went home that weekend and drew up a business plan of what I thought the business would be like. I then went to the bank to get a loan but was turned down. I was totally convinced with my idea bearing in mind I was a single parent with a young son Mevlit who was 8. I decided I needed £112,000 to get the business up and running so I sold my house and my car and started Pall-Ex. I lived above a fish and chip shop for a year, drove around in an old banger which was always breaking down, the rest is kinda history."
Q – You were entering typically a man’s world – did you find it hard?
Hilary - "In transport today it is still a man’s world – there are still very few women. Initially they thought that my concept was so obscure; they would either laugh at me or take me seriously. I was preaching a totally different way for haulage than they had ever been used to, but they saw I was talking sense. They realised it was a much more cost effective option to grow their business without the capital expenditure of buying trucks and that they could grow their revenue and improve their margins by 20%. I must have done a good selling job, as at the time I was selling to them, I had nothing to show them – it was damn hard going as I was driving 2,000 miles a week visiting hauliers trying to get them on board."
Q - Can you tell me more about the early days of your business?
Hilary – "At the start of the business I had to have premises. I leased a Second World War aircraft hanger and rented portacabins. We had no running water or electricity and rented chemical loos which I shared with about 40 hauliers. I used a generator for the electricity. I bought bottled water to drink and make cups of tea with."
Q – Can you believe where you are today?
Hilary – "Oh I can! People always say that to me, but I knew where I would be and I also knew eventually I would buy land and purpose build my own premises."
Q - Has the company changed since its early conception?
Hilary – "No not really, there is still a lot of growth in it, its still a very profitable business, very efficient, there has never been a blemish or smear on Pall-Ex and I’m proud of that. In fact just this year we opened in Italy and we are going to be opening up Poland and in Spain, so I am still very involved."
Q - I know you went through quite a tough time personally with your son’s substance abuse – how did you cope with this?
Hilary – "One of the hardest things I‘ve ever had to cope with; his personality is still suffering, he still gets terrible depression. I went through hell and back trying to help him get off the drugs. He is ever so affectionate and we are close again, he did seem to go away from me which was heart breaking when you’ve brought a child up on your own and we were ever so close it was like he went to bed one night and woke up a different child and I didn’t know what to look for because I’d never been around drugs or experienced anything like that."
Q - Do you have any gems you can give to other women starting their own business?
Hilary – "I think that you’ve got to be prepared to make a lot of sacrifices that a man wouldn’t have to make. One of the things I do regret is I couldn’t be at home with my son and work the required hours to start a business, something has to give. It was very tiring and you had to be extremely focused and make a lot of sacrifices. I didn’t have a social life."
Q - Do you believe you are lucky or is it down to just hard work?
Hilary – "Every body needs a little bit of luck but 90% hard work and 10% luck."
Q - What’s your proudest moment?
Hilary – "I’ve won at lot of awards – one of them would be Princess Anne opening our new premises, and then 2 years ago I got invited to the Palace for special achievements, where I met all the Royal family including the Queen. But I think probably the proudest I feel now when I look at how my son is turning out, he’s still has a long way to go, but if I look at what he’s like now compared to 3 years ago, yes I feel really proud."
Q - Do you consider you are successful and are you still ambitious - if yes - what are these ambitions?
Hilary – "Well what I could say is that I’d like my epitaph to say that whatever I did, I did it well, whatever venture I undertake, I will do it well. You know being tenacious enough to have a go at it."
Q - What do you enjoy most?
Hilary – "I enjoy reading, meeting people, enjoy my charity work, travel I enjoy lots of things really although I don’t have time for hobbies."
Q - If you had your time over – would you do anything different?
Hilary – "No not really – no I don’t think I would."
Q - What next?
Hilary –"To continue the expansion of the company I still haven’t recovered the use of my arm after the stroke so to try and take a bit more time for rest and recuperation."
This is the house she lives in!!
Q - What was your background?
Hilary – "A publican’s daughter born in Bolton, her career has always been in logistics working for companies such as Littlewood’s, Tibbett and Britten, Scorpio (part of the United Carrier network) and TNT, where she worked her way up the ladder into management."
Q - How did you start your Business?
Hilary – "After over hearing a conversation in a traffic office, the pallet concept came to me. I recognised there was a niche in the market that had not been tapped into. I went home that weekend and drew up a business plan of what I thought the business would be like. I then went to the bank to get a loan but was turned down. I was totally convinced with my idea bearing in mind I was a single parent with a young son Mevlit who was 8. I decided I needed £112,000 to get the business up and running so I sold my house and my car and started Pall-Ex. I lived above a fish and chip shop for a year, drove around in an old banger which was always breaking down, the rest is kinda history."
Q – You were entering typically a man’s world – did you find it hard?
Hilary - "In transport today it is still a man’s world – there are still very few women. Initially they thought that my concept was so obscure; they would either laugh at me or take me seriously. I was preaching a totally different way for haulage than they had ever been used to, but they saw I was talking sense. They realised it was a much more cost effective option to grow their business without the capital expenditure of buying trucks and that they could grow their revenue and improve their margins by 20%. I must have done a good selling job, as at the time I was selling to them, I had nothing to show them – it was damn hard going as I was driving 2,000 miles a week visiting hauliers trying to get them on board."
Q - Can you tell me more about the early days of your business?
Hilary – "At the start of the business I had to have premises. I leased a Second World War aircraft hanger and rented portacabins. We had no running water or electricity and rented chemical loos which I shared with about 40 hauliers. I used a generator for the electricity. I bought bottled water to drink and make cups of tea with."
Q – Can you believe where you are today?
Hilary – "Oh I can! People always say that to me, but I knew where I would be and I also knew eventually I would buy land and purpose build my own premises."
Q - Has the company changed since its early conception?
Hilary – "No not really, there is still a lot of growth in it, its still a very profitable business, very efficient, there has never been a blemish or smear on Pall-Ex and I’m proud of that. In fact just this year we opened in Italy and we are going to be opening up Poland and in Spain, so I am still very involved."
Q - I know you went through quite a tough time personally with your son’s substance abuse – how did you cope with this?
Hilary – "One of the hardest things I‘ve ever had to cope with; his personality is still suffering, he still gets terrible depression. I went through hell and back trying to help him get off the drugs. He is ever so affectionate and we are close again, he did seem to go away from me which was heart breaking when you’ve brought a child up on your own and we were ever so close it was like he went to bed one night and woke up a different child and I didn’t know what to look for because I’d never been around drugs or experienced anything like that."
Q - Do you have any gems you can give to other women starting their own business?
Hilary – "I think that you’ve got to be prepared to make a lot of sacrifices that a man wouldn’t have to make. One of the things I do regret is I couldn’t be at home with my son and work the required hours to start a business, something has to give. It was very tiring and you had to be extremely focused and make a lot of sacrifices. I didn’t have a social life."
Q - Do you believe you are lucky or is it down to just hard work?
Hilary – "Every body needs a little bit of luck but 90% hard work and 10% luck."
Q - What’s your proudest moment?
Hilary – "I’ve won at lot of awards – one of them would be Princess Anne opening our new premises, and then 2 years ago I got invited to the Palace for special achievements, where I met all the Royal family including the Queen. But I think probably the proudest I feel now when I look at how my son is turning out, he’s still has a long way to go, but if I look at what he’s like now compared to 3 years ago, yes I feel really proud."
Q - Do you consider you are successful and are you still ambitious - if yes - what are these ambitions?
Hilary – "Well what I could say is that I’d like my epitaph to say that whatever I did, I did it well, whatever venture I undertake, I will do it well. You know being tenacious enough to have a go at it."
Q - What do you enjoy most?
Hilary – "I enjoy reading, meeting people, enjoy my charity work, travel I enjoy lots of things really although I don’t have time for hobbies."
Q - If you had your time over – would you do anything different?
Hilary – "No not really – no I don’t think I would."
Q - What next?
Hilary –"To continue the expansion of the company I still haven’t recovered the use of my arm after the stroke so to try and take a bit more time for rest and recuperation."
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