Riches beyond his dreams

Gary Riches, Driver Hire’s franchisee at Colchester is celebrating a brilliant first year in business. Since buying his franchise in late 2012, he’s gone from strength to strength.

Colchester was an already successful franchise when he took it over. Since then Gary and his team have more than doubled its turnover compared to same time last year.

Their efforts have already been recognised by Driver Hire’s own senior management team – earlier this year Colchester were the nationwide network’s ‘Office of the Month’. And now they’ve received external acclaim; Gary has just heard that he is a finalist in the 2013 ‘Startups awards’.

Now into their tenth year the ‘Startups awards’ are run by ‘Startups’ website, an on-line platform for people new to the world of self employment. ‘Startups’ provides advice and assistance for anyone interested in starting their own business, whether it’s a franchise or stand-alone. Many past winners of the awards have gone on to become hugely successful, including ‘Naked Wines’ and the ‘Cambridge Satchel Company’.

Driver Hire has 100 offices nationwide. It is celebrating thirty years in business during the current financial year. It mainly provides temporary and permanent drivers and other logistics staff to local and national organisations in both the public and private sector. If they’re short of staff – perhaps because of illness, holidays or seasonal demand – Driver Hire will supply them with a suitable replacement.

Commenting on the announcement, Gary Riches said: “I have a very committed team here in the office, satisfied clients and drivers who we keep busy. I reckon that’s a good recipe for success. However, never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d be up for a national award in our first full year of trading.”