ASHLEY McCulla is Chairman of McCulla (Ireland) Ltd, one of the UK and Ireland’s leading temperature-controlled storage and distribution companies.
It is a second-generation family company which was established in 1969 and this year celebrates 50 years in business.
Ashley’s vision, resilience and adaptability to continuously re-invent the business has ensured that it has thrived through highs and lows (including two recessions and the BSE outbreak in the 90s which nearly wiped out the business overnight).
Ashley has an inquisitive and entrepreneurial mind and is always exploring new ideas to either incorporate into McCulla or start up as a separate business.
These other business interests currently include a waste recycling plant, an oil bio-remediation company, two building companies and two farms.
Ashley leads the business with the family values instilled by his parents: honesty, integrity and loyalty.
He re-invests heavily each year into the business to ensure its people, systems and equipment are all able to provide the highest level of customer service.
This can be evidenced by the many industry awards won by McCulla over the years.
Ashley was awarded family director of the year at the NI Institute of Directors Awards in 2018 and is the chairman of the board of the Road Haulage Association.
Operating from two facilities within Ireland (Lisburn and Dublin), the company has diversified significantly from the original core business of standard refrigerated haulage into a fully integrated cold supply chain, including cold storage and bespoke logistics solutions for customers of all sizes.
Services include product collection, storage, picking-to-order and delivery by the box, pallet, or full load to anywhere in the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe.
McCulla is entirely flexible to customers’ needs, in terms of facilities available, services provided and in volume of work. Because the company uses all of its own infrastructure and personnel, it has full control of the supply chain from start to finish.
1. What vision/lightbulb moment prompted you to start-up in business?
It was not so much a lightbulb moment to start up the business, but the realisation that I now had to start leading the business at 21 years old in 1993. My father went into bankruptcy after a deal went wrong, and my options were to give up or come out fighting. I chose the latter.
2. What is your greatest business achievement to date?
There have been numerous highs and lows, but I suppose the greatest achievement has been to gain control of our electricity and fuel costs for the next 25 years through the introduction of an anaerobic digester (AD). We have just celebrated the company’s 50th anniversary and the AD plant will go a long way to securing the future of the business for another 50 years at least.
3. What was your "back-to-the-wall" moment and how did you overcome it?
In 1996, BSE hit the UK and beef movements stopped overnight, which was around 90 per cent of our exports. We had to make an emotionally challenging decision to cut our fleet from 16 trucks to five and had to rebuild the business. Today we have over 100 trucks and a much more diverse customer base in a variety of sectors, everything from food service to supermarket work to specialist pharmaceuticals transportation.
4. What moment/deal would you cite as the 'game changer' or turning point for the company?
The BSE outbreak caused a considerable amount of emotional and financial challenges. But it also forced us to strip back what had been my father's business model and to rebuild the new McCulla company in line with my vision. This experience also taught me that 'every cloud has a silver lining' if you work hard enough to look for it.
5. What are you doing to disrupt, innovate and improve the products or services you offer?
We use technology to enhance the customer experience by providing full transparency, traceability and peace-of-mind throughout the supply chain. We can provide real-time temperatures and vehicle locations and can manage driving style using telematics and 360 degree vehicle cameras. Our drivers even have hand-held PDAs for proof-of-delivery procedures allowing our customers to invoice immediately after delivery, increasing their cash-flow. On the warehousing side, we provide state-of-the-art blast-freezing and the largest up-tempering (quick defrosting) facilities in UK and Ireland. This allows McCulla to provide a ‘just-in-time’ service to the market.
6. How has Brexit impacted your business? Are you still feeling the effects?
The effects of Brexit are largely still to be seen for the transport industry because there are huge implications relating to delays caused by hard borders, driver shortages due to immigration restrictions, as well as increased administration and the financial impact of increased red tape. The biggest issue with Brexit is the waiting. One positive is that Brexit has shone the spotlight on the importance of transport to the economy.
